About Us
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Who’s responsible for The Obesity Prevention Source? Read our vision and mission statement, see who serves on our editorial board, and learn more about our editorial and web team.
Our vision
We envision a society that makes it easier for people to eat healthfully and stay active so that everyone can achieve and maintain a healthy weight and enjoy the resulting health, social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Our mission
Obesity is a defining issue of our time, and The Obesity Prevention Source aims to inform and empower the public and policymakers to tackle the issue head on by covering in detail obesity’s global causes, consequences, prevention, and control, so that healthy lifestyle environmental changes can become a reality, allowing all people to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
The Obesity Prevention Source is maintained by the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. The website accepts no subsidies or commercial support from any industry, and website content is reviewed by an independent editorial board.
- Lilian Cheung, Lecturer, Department of Nutrition, Director of Health Promotion and Communication; Editorial Director, The Nutrition Source
- Frank Hu, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology
Website Managers
- Brett Otis
- Vidya Viswanathan
- Alice Woolverton
Writers and Editors
- Rachel Blaine
- Vanessa Boulanger
- Rita Buckley
- Pat Cleary
- Hank Dart
- Lawrence de Koning
- Jennifer Falbe
- Sari Kalin
- Cindy Leung
- Michael Long
- Vasanti Malik
- Patrick J. Skerrett
- Tryggvi Thorgeirsson
- Nicole Wedick
Harvard School of Public Health Web Team
- Deane Eastwood
- Christopher Ternan
- Jacob Yerdon
Web Assistant
- Lu Xing
Web Interns
- Michelle Boutet
- Megan McLean
- Samantha Taylor
- Jenna Wilson
- Kirsten Davison, Donald and Sue Pritzker Associate Professor of Nutrition
- Alison Field, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology
- Steven Gortmaker, Professor of the Practice of Health Sociology
- Nancy Kane, Professor of Management
- David Ludwig, Professor in the Department of Nutrition
- Frank Sacks, Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
- K. “Vish” Viswanath, Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health
- Walter Willett, Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition
- Jay Winsten, Associate Dean for Health Communication
Terms of Use
The aim of the Harvard School of Public Health Obesity Prevention Source Web site is to provide timely information about obesity’s global causes, consequences, prevention, and control, for the public, health and public health practitioners, business and community leaders, and policymakers. The contents of this Web site are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Web site. The Web site’s obesity prevention policy recommendations are based primarily on a review of U.S. expert guidance, unless otherwise indicated; in other countries, different policy approaches may be needed to achieve improvements in food and physical activity environments, so that healthy choices are easy choices, for all.