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Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary (2011)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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B
Biographical Sketches of the Presenters

Susan Bartlett, Ph.D., is currently a Principal Associate at Abt Associates in Cambridge, MA. For the past 25 years she has been involved in policy research primarily focused on issues concerning food and nutrition assistance programs, including WIC, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) school meals programs. She is currently involved in several evaluation projects to assess the impact of fruit and vegetable interventions. Dr. Bartlett holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Loren Bell, B.A., is a Subject Matter Expert at Altarum Institute and is a nationally known expert in food assistance and nutrition education program policy and program operations. He has more than 25 years’ experience working with WIC and SNAP at the state and national levels. Mr. Bell has managed a number of projects, including two studies examining the food purchasing patterns of WIC clients, four food stamp nutrition education technical assistance and evaluation projects, two national studies of WIC vendor management practices, and a needs assessment of adolescents participating in the WIC program. In addition, Mr. Bell has managed a number of technical assistance efforts, including projects to help states revise how local WIC agencies are funded; conducting assessments for states developing participant-centered nutrition education in their WIC programs; and assisting states with using program data for improved program management. Mr. Bell has also directed an effort for USDA to examine the links among obesity, poverty, and participation in food assistance programs. For 11 years, Mr. Bell directed the Washington state WIC program. Mr. Bell holds

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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a bachelor’s degree in communications and undertook graduate studies in business and organizational communications at California State University, Fullerton.


Sara Benjamin Neelon, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Global Health Institute. Prior to going to Duke, Dr. Benjamin Neelon was a postdoctoral research fellow for the Obesity Prevention Program in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on nutrition and physical activity interventions for children from birth to 5 years of age; the nutrition and physical activity environment in child care settings; early childhood predictors of obesity; feeding practices as predictors of later obesity; and nutrition policy and regulation in child care. She has published a book on nutrition for children in child care: Making Food Healthy and Safe for Children: How to Meet the National Health and Safety Performance Standards—Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs and Nutrition and Physical Activity in Child Care. Dr. Benjamin Neelon received both her M.P.H. and Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.


Marianne P. Bitler, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine and a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Children’s Program and Health Economics Program. She is also an economist at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. Her research interests include labor economics, health economics, public economics, and applied microeconomics. Dr. Bitler has published in numerous economics and medical journals, including several articles on WIC, which appeared in the Journal of Human Resources, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and the Review of Agricultural Economics. Dr. Bitler is also a member of a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Estimating Children Eligible for School Nutrition Programs Using the American Community Survey. She has a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Maureen Black, Ph.D., M.A., is the John A. Scholl M.D. and Mary Louise Scholl M.D. Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Director of the Growth and Nutrition Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic for children with poor growth and feeding problems. She is an adjunct professor in the Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland Baltimore County. Dr. Black is a pediatric psychologist; she has been the president of the Society of Pediatric Psychology and the Division of Children, Youth, and Family Services of the American Psychological Associa-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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tion. She specializes in intervention research related to children’s nutrition, health, and development. She is a site principal investigator for Children’s Health Watch and is conducting three National Institute Health–funded intervention trials. She is Chair of the Child Health Foundation, Vice Chair of the Maryland WIC Advisory Committee, and has served on committees for UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Dr. Black has conducted four studies related to WIC: a statewide survey of feeding practices among families of infants receiving WIC, a statewide study of food preferences related to changes in the WIC food package, a study demonstrating that infants who receive WIC achieve healthier weight and lengths and are perceived to be in better health than eligible infants who do not receive WIC, and a randomized controlled trial of health promotion/obesity prevention among WIC-enrolled mothers of toddlers. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University.


Karen Bonuck, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Social Medicine and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her research focuses on infant and young child feeding, growth, and development. She heads two National Institutes of Health (NIH) randomized controlled trials of breastfeeding promotion interventions in low-income, multi-ethnic Bronx women. These trials, which completed enrollment of nearly 1,000 women in July 2010, are examining the effects of having an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant as part of the prenatal health care team, as well as the effects of electronically prompted prenatal care provider encouragement to breastfeed. The trials include the collection of qualitative data from both participants and providers. A secondary outcome being examined is the effect of breastfeeding on infant illnesses. Being interested in subjects across the continuum of infant feeding, Dr. Bonuck also works on the pernicious effects of extended bottle use in WIC toddlers as the principal investigator of a National Institute of Food and Agriculture randomized controlled trial and observational study.


Paul A. Buescher, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health of the University of North Carolina (UNC) and a Research Fellow with the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC. He is also a consultant to the Cancer Surveillance Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Buescher is retired from 32 years of state government service in North Carolina. As director of the State Center for Health Statistics in North Carolina, he was responsible for overseeing the Health and Spatial Analysis Unit, the Central Cancer Registry, the Birth Defects Monitoring Program, the Statistical Services Unit, and the Operations Unit. In several roles over 29 years at

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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the State Center, he participated in and published many studies, especially ones related to maternal and child health. He served as project director for the CDC Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in sociology and demography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Maya Bunik, M.D., M.S.P.H., F.A.B.M., F.A.A.P., is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado at Denver. She is also medical director of the primary care clinic at the Children’s Hospital. As a pediatrician, she has been helping low-income mothers and babies with breastfeeding for more than 15 years. Dr. Bunik currently sees premature and other high-risk infants as part of her faculty breastfeeding practice. She has published on breastfeeding topics that concern low-income Latinas, especially the issue of “los dos” combination feeding as well as breastfeeding curriculum development for residents. Dr. Bunik received her M.D. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Medical School.


Patrick M. Catalano, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Reproductive Biology at Case Western Reserve University at MetroHealth Medical Center. Dr. Catalano also serves on the Management Council and Executive Committee at MetroHealth Medical Center as well as on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology. He has published more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and Diabetes. He holds membership in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Diabetes Association, the Perinatal Research Society, and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. Dr. Catalano is a member of the Maternal–Fetal Medicine Division of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Catalano’s research focus is insulin resistance and glucose metabolism in pregnancy and the role of placental cytokines in the regulation of fetal growth and adiposity. He has had research support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) for more than 20 years. Dr. Catalano received his M.D. from the University of Vermont, Burlington. He served his internship at the University of California, San Francisco, and residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont, Burlington. Dr. Catalano is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in maternal and fetal medicine.


Nancy Cole, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. She has 17 years of experience in program evaluation for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Cole has conducted studies of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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the nation’s major nutrition assistance programs—food stamps (now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), WIC, the National School Lunch Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Her areas of expertise include eligibility determinations, food stamp benefit redemption patterns, computer matching and record linkage, and nutrition research. Her work has been published in the Journal of Human Resources. Dr. Cole obtained her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles


John Cook, Ph.D., M.A.Ed., is one of the principal investigators for Children’s HealthWatch, a multi-site pediatric research center based at Boston Medical Center. His research interests include examining the effects of hunger, food insecurity, and energy insecurity on child and maternal health and well-being and ways to increase access to affordable, healthful food. Research in progress is related to effects of food insecurity at its lowest levels of severity, including “marginal food security.” Prior to joining Children’s HealthWatch, Dr. Cook was a faculty member at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Cook received his B.A. from the University of Alabama in mathematics and Spanish and his M.A.Ed. from Arizona State University in educational psychology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in planning for developing areas with concentrations in demography and economics.


Patricia Crawford, Dr.P.H., R.D., is Co-Director of the Center for Weight and Health, Cooperative Extension Nutrition Specialist in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health and Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Crawford directed the 10-year longitudinal the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Growth & Health Study, a study of the development of cardiovascular risk factors in African American and White girls, as well as the Five-State FitWIC Initiative to Prevent Pediatric Overweight. She has developed numerous obesity-prevention materials, including the Fit Families novella series for Latino families and Let’s Getting Moving, an activity program for those who work with young children. Dr. Crawford’s current studies include evaluations of large community-based obesity initiatives and school-based policy interventions. Dr. Crawford is a member of the IOM standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention and chaired the planning committee for a series of workshops on community perspectives to prevent childhood obesity. She earned a B.S. from the University of Washington and a Dr.P.H. and an R.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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Barbara Devaney, Ph.D., is Director of the Human Services Research Division at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and a nationally recognized expert in maternal and child health, nutrition, and risk-reduction programs for youth. She has played a leading role in many of Mathematica’s studies of family formation, children’s nutrition, and public health programs. She is co-director of Mathematica’s Building Strong Families. She also oversaw Mathematica’s 2002 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study, which provided detailed information on the food and nutrient intakes of U.S. infants and toddlers. Other evaluations in which she has played a key role have focused on the school lunch and breakfast programs, WIC, and the Food Stamp Program. She was previously an Assistant Professor at Duke University and the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Devaney has served on the IOM Subcommittee on Uses and Interpretation of Dietary Reference Intakes and the Committee to Revise the WIC Food Packages, among others. She publishes widely in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and the American Journal of Public Health. She has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.


Sally Findley, Ph.D., is a demographer-sociologist whose work is dedicated to finding creative strategies to expand opportunities for disadvantaged mothers and their children to adopt improved health promotion practices or increase adherence to recommended treatment programs. In her research, she has focused primarily on children under age 5 and has developed strategies for including health promotion activities into or alongside WIC, Head Start, Healthy Families, and other early childhood parenting programs. Growing out of this work has been an increased appreciation for the role of community health workers (CHWs), and much of her research now focuses on documenting the contributions of community health workers and developing a sustainable funding process for CHWs in New York State. She has worked through community partnerships in Northern Manhattan (New York City) to raise childhood immunization rates, improve asthma management, reduce early childhood caries, and prevent early childhood obesity. She is currently leading a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–funded multi-year, multi-method assessment of the impact of the recent changes in the WIC food package and related counseling procedures for the state of New York.


Edward A. Frongillo, Jr., Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Dr. Frongillo studies how to solve under- and over-nutrition of populations globally, especially children and families living in poverty, using qualitative and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
×

quantitative methods. His particular research interests are growth, development, and feeding of infants and young children and the role of family stress and parenting in these; measurement and consequences of household food insecurity and hunger; policies and programs for improving nutrition and development; advancement of consensus, commitment, and capacity for nutrition and health in poor locations; and design and analysis of longitudinal studies.


Philip M. Gleason, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, is an expert in evaluation design and random assignment. He has directed many studies related to education initiatives and federal nutrition programs. Dr. Gleason recently completed a rigorous evaluation of charter schools for the U.S. Department of Education and directs an evaluation of KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) middle schools for the KIPP Foundation as well as an evaluation of Teacher Residency Programs. He recently led a study of childhood obesity and school meal programs. He has played a key role in research examining administrative and nutrition-related aspects of the school meal programs, examined the dynamics of participation in the Food Stamp Program, and studied dropout-prevention programs. Dr. Gleason publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals, with recent articles appearing in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Evaluation Review, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Demography. He is also on the board of editors of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and authored a chapter in Race, Poverty, and Domestic Policy, a book from Yale University Press. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.


Rev. Douglas A. Greenaway is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National WIC Association(NWA). For 20 years he has been responsible for directing the NWA as well as representing the interests of its members (50 states, 40 Indian nations, and trust territories, 2,200 local agencies, and 10,000 clinics that operate the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for WIC) before Congress, the USDA, other federal agencies, and the White House. Fr. Greenaway was Ordained to the Holy Order of Priests in the Anglican/Episcopal Diocese of Washington and serves as Priest Associate at St. Paul’s Rock Creek Parish, as Honorary Assistant at St. Paul’s K Street Parish, and as on-call chaplain at Washington Hospital Center. He began work in 1974 with the Research Office of the Official Opposition in Canadian Parliament, writing speeches and debate notes for the Leader of the Official Opposition and Opposition Members of Parliament. He holds a master of divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary and a master of architecture degree from The Catholic University of America.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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Laurence Grummer-Strawn, M.P.A., M.A., Ph.D., is Chief of the Nutrition Branch at CDC. As branch chief, he is responsible for national surveillance of nutrition among low-income children, national breastfeeding support efforts, fruit and vegetable promotion, and international micronutrient deficiency programs. He has worked at CDC for almost 19 years, in the areas of reproductive health and nutrition. He has more than 100 scientific publications. Dr. Grummer-Strawn is recognized internationally for his work on vitamin and mineral deficiencies, breastfeeding policy, and development of both the CDC and the WHO Growth Charts. He is widely known in the breastfeeding research and advocacy communities, serving as scientific editor of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Breastfeeding, an executive committee member of the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation, and a liaison to the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University.


Gail Harrison, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health and senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health and Policy Research. Previously, she was Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Harrison has worked extensively in the area of dietary and nutritional assessment of diverse populations. She is a former member of the Food and Nutrition Board and has served on several of its committees, including the Committee on International Nutrition Programs, the Committee to Review the Risk Criteria for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program, the Committee on Implications of Dioxin in the Food Supply, the Committee to Revise the WIC Food Packages, and the Committee on Nutrition Standards for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. She has served in various advisory capacities for the National Institutes of Health and the USDA, consulted with the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and has worked in Egypt, the Sudan, Iran, Indonesia, and Lesotho, besides the United States. Dr. Harrison has an M.N.S. (nutritional sciences) from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from the University of Arizona. She also serves on the Board of the California Food Policy Advocates organization. Dr. Harrison is a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition and a member of IOM.


Jay Hirschman, M.P.H., C.N.S., Director of the Special Nutrition Staff at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Office of Research and Analysis, has worked in public health nutrition at the local, state, and federal level, including 25 years at USDA/FNS. He served as a state WIC Supervisor and as the first Director for the Nutrition Policy and Analysis Staff at the then newly formed USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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In his current position of staff director, he is responsible for managing the staff conducting the evaluation studies and policy analysis for all domestic Special Nutrition Programs, including WIC, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the other child nutrition programs, and the Food Distribution Programs. Mr. Hirschman is an American College of Nutrition (ACN) board-certified nutrition specialist (CNS) and served as elected Chair of the American Public Health Association Food and Nutrition Section (APHA/FN) in 2003–2004. In 2009 he received the APHA/FN Mary C. Egan award, which “goes to those public health nutritionists who pioneer fresh approaches to public health nutrition, nutrition education, and those groups with special dietary needs.”


Cynthia Howard, M.D., M.P.H., is Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Community and Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and Pediatric Director of the Mother-Baby Unit at Rochester General Hospital. Dr. Howard focuses the majority of her research on infant nutrition, breastfeeding, and human lactation. In 2000 she lead the team that helped Rochester General Hospital become designated as a Baby Friendly hospital. She is a member of the board of directors for the New York State breastfeeding coalition, the health advisory board of La Leche League International, and the editorial board of Birth. She is the past President of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, Co-Chairperson of the protocol committee, and the Senior Associate Editor for the journal Breastfeeding Medicine.Dr. Howard has served as principal investigator in several research studies on clinical breastfeeding issues and has authored many research papers and book chapters. She is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation. Her current research includes a clinical study designed to evaluate vitamin D nutrition during lactation that is focusing on optimizing health outcomes for mothers and their infants. Additionally, she is an investigator on a community-based project funded by the National Institutes of Health focusing on improving breastfeeding initiation and duration in the greater Rochester area through community partnerships.


Helen H. Jensen, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Economics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University (ISU) and serves as head of the Food and Nutrition Policy Division in the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at ISU. Dr. Jensen’s research concerns food demand and consumption, food assistance and nutrition policies, food security, and the economics of food safety and hazard control. She has been a member of the board of directors of the American Agricul-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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tural Economics Association and serves on the editorial board of a number of professional journals. Dr. Jensen was a member of the IOM Committee on Nutrition Standards for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs and on the IOM Committee to Review the WIC Food Packages. She also served on the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on National Statistics panel to review USDA’s measurement of food insecurity and hunger and on other NRC committees related to the U.S. sheep industry and animal health and diseases. She is currently a member of the IOM Committee to Review CACFP Meal Requirements and the NRC Committee on Ranking FDA Product Categories Based on Health Consequences. Dr. Jensen holds a B.A. in economics from Carleton College, an M.S. in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.


Theodore Joyce, Ph.D., is a National Bureau of Economics Research Associate in the Programs on Health Economics and Children and a Professor of Economics at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is also the Academic Director of the Baruch/Mount Sinai MBA Program in Health Care Administration, in which he teaches health economics and statistics. Dr. Joyce received his B.A. in bilingual education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976 and his Ph.D. in economics from the City University of New York in 1985. Professor Joyce’s research interests are in infant and reproductive health policy. His published work has appeared in economic, policy, and clinical journals. He is best known for his work on abortion policies and their impact on fertility and infant health.


Nancy F. Krebs, M.D., M.S., is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD), and is the head of the Section of Nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics. She is board certified in general pediatrics, clinical nutrition, and pediatric gastroenterology. Dr. Krebs has extensive research experience in trace mineral nutrition in breastfeeding infants and their mothers, including in international settings. Current research in the United States is testing effects of different complementary feeding regimens to meet micronutrient requirements for breastfed infants. Through the NIH/NICHD Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Research, she leads an ongoing multi-country efficacy trial of complementary feeding and growth and development. As a secondary area of research interest, she is a co-investigator in research related to childhood obesity, both prevention and treatment studies. Dr. Krebs’ clinical activities include directing two pediatric nutrition clinics, including one for children with undernutrition and feeding problems, and the other for overweight infants and children. She has more than 160 research and scholarly

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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publications. She served as the Chair of the Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics for 4 years, and as Co-Chair of the AAP Task Force on Obesity. From 2003–2007, she served as a member of the Food and Nutrition Board with the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Krebs earned her M.D. from UCD School of Medicine.


Miriam H. Labbok, M.D., M.P.H., M.M.S., F.A.C.P.M., F.A.B.M., I.B.C.L.C., has been Professor of the Practice of Public Health, and Director, Carolinar Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI) since January 2006. Previously, Dr. Labbok served as the Senior Advisor for infant and young child feeding and care at UNICEF headquarters; Chief, Maternal Health and Nutrition Division, Global Health Bureau, and Medical Officer, Population Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Associate Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center, Director of the WHO Center of Excellence on Breastfeeding, and Co-Director, Institute for Reproductive Health; Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Tulane. She is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania with general honors; the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Rutgers; and Tulane University (where she studied under the mentorship of Dr. Cicely Williams). She was a resident in pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center and completed postdoctoral research in epidemiology with honors and a preventive medicine residency at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Labbok has 35 years of research, technical assistance, training, and program development experience related to maternal/child dyad health and nutrition issues. She has worked in more than 50 countries and is known for her contributions to the development and testing of the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) for family planning. She has been very involved in a birth spacing/family planning program and policy for health outcomes. Recently, her research on breastfeeding has focused primarily on disparities, and workplace-, hospital-, and community-based health initiatives using operational and translational epidemiological approaches. As a result of her work on breastfeeding, LAM, family planning, and the reproductive health continuum, she has been recognized with honors as varied as distinguished alumnus of all institutions of higher learning attended, the first Science and Technology Award from USAID, both student and distinguished honoree of La Leche League International (LLLI), faculty Delta Omega, and many others. She has published more than 300 chapters, articles, monographs, and abstracts, and she has presented hundreds of invited lectures and seminars.


Michael C. Lu, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine. His research focuses on racial/ethnic

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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disparities in birth outcomes from a life-course perspective. Dr. Lu is widely recognized for his research, teaching, and clinical care. He received the 2003 National Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Young Professional Award and the 2004 American Public Health Association Maternal and Child Health Young Professional Award for his research on health disparities. Dr. Lu has previously served on several IOM committees, including the Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Health Outcomes, and the Committee to Reexamine Pregnancy Weight Guidelines. He has also received numerous awards for his teaching, including Excellence in Teaching awards from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Dr. Lu maintains an active clinical practice in obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA Medical Center and has been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America since 2005. Dr. Lu received a B.A. in human biology and political science from Stanford University, an M.S. in health and medical sciences, an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.


Suzanne P. Murphy, Ph.D., R.D., is a Researcher and Professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii at the University of Hawaii and Director of the Nutrition Support Shared Resource at the center. Dr. Murphy’s research interests include dietary assessment methodology, development of food composition databases, and nutritional epidemiology of chronic diseases (with an emphasis on cancer and obesity). Dr. Murphy has served as a member of the National Nutrition Monitoring Advisory Council and the year 2000 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. She is a member of various professional organizations, including the American Dietetic Association, the American Society for Nutrition, the American Public Health Association, the Society for Nutrition Education, and the Society for Epidemiological Research. Dr. Murphy has served on several IOM committees. She chaired the Subcommittee on Interpretation and Uses of Dietary Reference Intakes and the Committee to Review the WIC Food Packages, was a member of the Committee to Review the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and currently chairs the Committee to Review the Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal Requirements. She is also a member of the Food and Nutrition Board. Dr. Murphy earned an M.S. in molecular biology from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a registered dietitian.


Zoë Neuberger, J.D., is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she has worked since 2001. She primarily works on the school meal programs and WIC, providing analytic and technical assistance to policymakers and state-level nonprofit groups. Previously,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
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she worked as an analyst at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she was responsible for oversight of federal spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, child care, child nutrition, WIC, and low-income tax credits. She holds a law degree from Yale University and a master in public policy degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.


David Paige, M.D., M.P.H., is Professor of Population and Family Health with a joint appointment in International Health and Human Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a joint appointment in Pediatrics at the School of Medicine. He is an expert in the area of community health and maternal and child nutrition. Dr. Paige’s groundbreaking studies of lactose intolerance in children, his pioneering effort in establishing a supplemental feeding program for disadvantaged women, infants, and children, and his design and implementation of community-based programs define the scope of his interest. His design and implementation of a supplemental feeding program served as the prototype for the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. He is a contributor to the professional literature and is the author of numerous chapters and articles in scientific journals. Dr. Paige edited the textbook Clinical Nutrition and is the past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Clinical Nutrition. He has been a member of numerous national scientific panels and committees and has served as consultant to federal, state, and local governments, most recently having served as a reviewer for the Institute of Medicine publication on the redesign of the USDA WIC Program. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the March of Dimes National Agnes Higgins Award for Distinguished Achievement in Maternal–Fetal Nutrition.


Lorrene Ritchie, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Research at the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked for more than a decade to promote the development of interdisciplinary, science-based, and culturally relevant solutions to the obesity epidemic in children and families. She served as an evidence analyst for the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and co-authored the ADA’s position paper on pediatric weight management. She recently served as a member of the ADA’s Pediatric Weight Management Workgroup to formulate evidence-based practice guidelines and the California Department of Education’s Child Care Nutrition Standards Workgroup to improve nutrition standards for licensed child care. She is co-author of a book, Obesity: Dietary and Developmental Influences, and serves as the pediatric section editor of the ADA’s Weight Management Dietary Practice Group newsletter. She currently manages several research projects, includ-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
×

ing: characterizing dietary patterns and timing of eating in relation to obesity in a longitudinal cohort of Black and White girls followed through adolescence; investigating the nutrition environments in childcare settings in California; assessing nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of WIC participants in response to a nutrition education campaign and the new WIC food package changes in California; and evaluating student dietary intakes and school food environment changes related to USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. Dr. Ritchie obtained her doctorate in nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley.


Jackson P. Sekhobo, Ph.D., M.P.A., is Director, Evaluation and Analysis Unit, Bureau of Administration & Evaluation, Division of Nutrition with the New York State Department of Health. Previously, he was an evaluation consultant for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for the New York City Diabetes Registry project, and an Assistant Medical Professor for the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City College of New York, City University of New York. Dr. Sekhobo is currently working on a NY Fit WIC Grant: Revitalizing WIC Nutrition Service, and he is leading the study, “First Steps” Evaluation of New York State Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies, which is being funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New York State Health Foundation. Dr. Sekhobo received his M.P.A. in health policy from New York University and his Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Albany, State University of New York.


Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H., is Assistant Professor of both Population Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Population Medicine (DPM). She works with DPM’s Center for Child Health Care Studies and co-directs DPM’s Obesity Prevention Program. She is also the Director of the One Step Ahead clinic, a multidisciplinary childhood overweight prevention and early management program at Children’s Hospital Boston. Her research interests include nutrition and physical activity as they affect child health and childhood obesity prevention. Dr. Taveras is a recipient of the Physician Faculty Scholars Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine opportunities for childhood obesity prevention among underserved populations. Dr. Taveras trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center and received her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.


Marilyn Townsend, Ph.D., R.D., is the Cooperative Extension Nutrition Specialist in the Department of Nutrition at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Townsend has extensive experience in program evaluation, having conducted randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental evalu-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
×

ation studies in low-income communities. She has conducted studies on mediators of behavior change with both adult and youth audiences. Her work includes theory-driven program development and implementation, nutrition educational methodologies, and program evaluation. She is an expert on the development of assessment tools for primary prevention interventions for low-literate audiences in low-income communities. Specifically, she focuses on tools for program evaluation and risk assessment conducting studies for validation, reliability, and sensitivity to change. She is the recipient of the Sustained Excellence in Extension Evaluation Award, sponsored by the American Evaluation Association, Extension Education Evaluation Topical Interest Group, the Jeanne M. Priester Award for outstanding health education intervention, and the Dannon Institute’s Award in Community Nutrition. She obtained her M.S. in nutrition science from the University of London (Kings College) and then her Ph.D. in nutrition with emphasis on behavior from Pennsylvania State University.


James Weill, J.D., has been President of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) since February 1998. FRAC is the leading anti-hunger public policy group in America, using research, policy advocacy, coalition building, and public education to combat hunger and improve nutrition for low-income people. He has devoted his entire professional career to reducing hunger and poverty, protecting the legal rights of children and poor people, and expanding economic security, income, and nutrition support programs and health insurance coverage. Prior to joining FRAC, he was at the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) as Program Director and General Counsel, leading CDF’s efforts to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, and other programs. Mr. Weill is a member of the boards of OMB Watch and the National Center for Youth Law. He serves on advisory councils to the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families and to Wider Opportunities for Women. He has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the UNICEF executive board. His undergraduate degree is from Cornell and his law degree is from New York University.


Shannon Whaley, Ph.D., is the Director of Research and Evaluation at Public Health Foundation Enterprise (PHFE)–WIC Program, the largest local agency WIC program in the nation. PHFE-WIC serves more than 316,000 women, infants, and children every month in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, translating into 4 percent of the nation’s total WIC participants. Dr. Whaley’s expertise is in the planning, development, and evaluation of programs designed to optimize the healthy development of young children and families. Her work spans a broad range of topics, including childhood nutrition, prevention of prenatal alcohol use, obesity prevention, and promotion of early literacy for low-income children, and it includes

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of the Presenters." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Planning a WIC Research Agenda: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13014.
×

controlled research studies as well as implementation of community-based interventions using evidenced-based practices. Dr. Whaley received her B.A in psychology from Pomona College and her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA.


Robert C. Whitaker, M.D., M.P.H., is Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education. Prior to joining the Temple faculty, he was a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey, and a visiting Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. His research has focused on the childhood antecedents of adult chronic disease. This has included studies on school nutrition, obesity prevention strategies in preschool children, parent–child feeding interactions, the epidemiology of childhood obesity, and the determinants of social and emotional well-being in children. He served on the IOM Committee on Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program and the Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth. Dr. Whitaker received a B.A. in chemistry from Williams College, an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and an M.P.H. from the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Dr. Whitaker completed his residency and fellowship in pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and he received postdoctoral training as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

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The time has come to initiate a new program of research on the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (commonly referred to as WIC). WIC is the third largest food assistance program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The program's scope is large, serving approximately 9.3 million low-income women, infants, and children at nutritional risk. Through federal grants to states, participants receive three types of benefits: 1) a supplemental food package tailored to specific age groups for infants and children; 2) nutrition education, including breastfeeding support; and 3) referrals to health services and social services. To cover program costs for fiscal year (FY) 2010, Congress appropriated $7.252 billion. Congress also appropriated $15 million for research related to the program for FY 2010.

The timing of the funding for WIC research is propitious. In October 2009, USDA issued regulations that made substantial revisions to the WIC food package. These revisions are the first major change in the food package since the program's inception in 1972. Over the intervening years WIC has expanded greatly, Medicaid coverage has increased, large changes have occurred in the racial and ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status of WIC participants as well as in public health services, and obesity rates have increased substantially among the general population.

To guide its planning for the use of the $15 million allocated for WIC research, the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA asked the Institute of Medicine to conduct a two-day public workshop on emerging research needs for WIC. As requested, the workshop included presentations and discussions to illuminate issues related to future WIC research issues, methodological challenges, and solutions. The workshop also planned for a program of research to determine the effects of WIC on maternal and child health outcomes.

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