Trained in social epidemiology and planned behavior change, my research focuses on identifying successful, efficient, and cost-effective strategies to modify children’s environments to make the healthiest choice the easiest choice and to help children form healthy habits for life. I do this through conducting both intervention studies and epidemiological studies. My work is grounded in social ecological theory and the investigation of how children’s environments can be feasibly changed to promote healthy eating habits…
Dr. Rimm is a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology, and is also affiliated with the Channing Laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rimm is an internationally recognized nutrition expert and health communicator. His pioneering research…
Dr. Sara Bleich is a Professor of Public Health Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Bleich obtained her Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard University, and her B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University. Dr. Bleich’s research focuses on policy-based methods to reduce obesity on a population level through reduction of caloric intake, addressment of environmental factors that…
Dr. Block is a general internal medicine physician with training in epidemiology and population health. Working with interdisciplinary teams, his research follows two tracks (1) examining the geographic influences on the obesity epidemic and (2) intervening in multiple settings to promote weight loss and overall wellness, especially at the environmental level. Dr. Block has completed studies on the geographic distribution of food establishments. He has explored whether proximity to food…
Juliana Cohen is an associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Merrimack College and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Her current work focuses on innovative school-based interventions to encourage the selection and consumption of healthier foods, as well as research examining the association between diet and cognitive functioning. Previously she was an ORISE Policy…
Michele Polacsek earned an MHS in international health in 1989 and a PhD in social and behavioral health in 1994 from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She recently served as Principal Investigator on two studies funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assess school food and beverage marketing environments. Dr. Polacsek served as Principal Investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson Healthy Eating Research Grant to evaluate…
Anne Thorndike, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, MA. She is the Director of the Metabolic Syndrome Clinic at the MGH Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Center. Her clinical and research interests are the prevention and treatment of obesity and cardiometabolic disease through lifestyle modification. Her research focuses on interventions utilizing behavioral economics strategies, such…
Dr. Alyssa Moran is an Assistant Professor of Health and Social Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Moran obtained her ScD in Nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018 and her MPH/RDN from the New York University Global Institute of Public Health in 2011. Her research focuses on the identification, adoption, and…
