Nutrition Policy Institute is collaborating with The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. and Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE), Inc. on two projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Healthy Eating Research Program, as announced today. NPI's Christina Hecht and Laura Vollmer, of NPI's National Drinking Water Alliance, received funding to collaborate with Sonya Shin at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. on a project to expand and evaluate a community-based intervention to increase healthy beverage consumption by Navajo preschool children. The second project is a collaboration between NPI's Lorrene Ritchie and Lauren Au with Shannon Whaley of PHFE Women, Infants and Children (WIC) on a project that will pilot test and evaluate an expansion ofWIC's $9 per month cash value benefit for the purchase of fruits and vegetables to $23 per month. These research teams are being funded through Healthy Eating Research's annual call for proposals. This call for proposals focused exclusively on children ages 0-8, and the resulting projects focus on a range of topics, including WIC, healthy beverage consumption, and food purchasing patterns.
Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) Senior Researcher and Policy Advisor Wendi Gosliner, in collaboration with Professor Lia Fernald at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Equity-Focused Policy Research grant to understand the reasons for disparities in access to income support, particularly among urban Latinx and African American populations and among rural whites in California. Dr. Gosliner will work with Dr. Fernald specifically to evaluate levels of awareness, barriers to uptake, and the benefits of participation in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) among families with children ages 0-5 years old in three California counties - Los Angeles, Alameda, and Merced. The two-year project will be completed in November 2021.
The chief business officer manages the administrative operations of the Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI), a research institute with a staff of approximately 30-40 academic, staff and student positions funded predominately by grants from large foundations, health care institutions or government agencies. Administrative oversight activities include up to 20-40 grants and contracts, human resources management, internal and external communications, complex budget, accounting and payroll oversight, general office management (IT, telecommunications, facilities, data management, travel, leadership team support), and operational strategic planning. This position supervises a team of 3 professional administrative staff members. Previous experience working within the University of California system is desired. The job is located at the NPI research office in downtown Berkeley, CA. Apply online. This job posting will close on 02/05/2020.
A comment composed by members of the National Drinking Water Alliance was signed by 62 individuals and 13 organizations and submitted to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs). The comment urged the DGAC to include in their report, strong language recommending that the new 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans state explicitly and unequivocally that water should be first for thirst and should be consumed in place of sugar-sweetened beverages. Further, the comment urges the needed steps be taken to add a symbol for water to the MyPlate graphic. Read the full comment here. The National Drinking Water Alliance is coordinated by the Nutrition Policy Institute. Learn more about the drinking water input at the National Drinking Water Alliance website.
Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) researchers published a new study suggesting childhood obesity prevention programs are not associated with unhealthy dieting in children and may in fact improve children's satisfaction with their body weight. The study was published in Pediatric Obesity by lead author Colleen Plimier from the University of California (UC), Berkeley School of Public Health, along with co-authors Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Karen Webb, Lauren Au, and Lorrene Ritchie from NPI, and Dianne Neumark‐Sztainer from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Study data were from 130 communities and over 5,000 children and their families from across the United States as part of the Healthy Communities Study, a six-year observational study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
