Lauren Au, Nutrition Policy Institute affiliated researcher and assistant professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, received the 2023 Huddelson award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation. The award recognizes dietitians who were the lead author of a peer-reviewed article that made important contributions to the field of dietetics. The award is named for Mary Pascoe Huddleson, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics editor from 1927 to 1946. The honored article, “A Qualitative Examination of California WIC Participants and Local Agency Directors Experiences during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic,” was co-authored by NPI researchers Christina Hecht, Marisa Tsai, Nicole Vital and Lorrene Ritchie. It examines Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children participants' and agency directors' perceptions, practices, and other challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Au's research is used to support nutrition policies and reduce disparities among low-income populations.
Lorrene Ritchie, director of the Nutrition Policy Institute and University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources cooperative extension specialist, received the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Platinum Author Recognition Award in June 2023. The award recognizes authors with exceptional publication records in the Journal and for high frequency of publication of excellent manuscripts during the last 10 years. This is the fourth consecutive year Lorrene has received the award. Her more recent publications in the Journal highlight improving college student food security through campus food pantries and expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program access, the health benefits of the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, the importance of engaged school nutrition leadership in improving school meal programs, the effectiveness of using online training to engage child care providers on serving healthy beverages, and the importance of the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program for improving the nutritional quality of meals, snacks and beverages served in child care across the US.
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
Nutrition Policy Institute researcher Wendi Gosliner received the Susie Nanney Culture of Health Champion Award in recognition of her work on improving nutrition for marginalized populations and promoting a culture of health in the design and implementation of food assistance programs. She was honored with the award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows Program—of which Wendi is a 2013-2014 alumna—which was presented to her at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine building in Washington, DC, on Oct. 14, 2022 during their annual meeting. Wendi is the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of several collaborative research projects that exemplify her award, including but not limited to: a California Department of Agriculture-funded project to increase access to and consumption of California-grown specialty crops in the California corrections system, a California state-funded evaluation of California's universal school meals program, and two RWJF-funded projects to explore perceptions and take up of the earned-income tax credit and other safety net supports among young California families with low-income.
Marisa Tsai has been named as a finalist for the Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Abstract Recognition Award Program, a program of the American Society for Nutrition that recognizes the highest quality research presented by students and young investigators at Nutrition 2022 Live Online. Tsai is a research data analyst at the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, and a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. More than 700 abstracts were submitted by students and postdoctoral fellows and the award program aims to recognize the top 15% highest scoring abstracts. Abstracts were rated by more than 400 nutrition scientists. Finalists will be recognized during the Nutrition 2022 Live Online conference that will be held virtually from June 14-16, 2022. Tsai's abstract is titled “Larger WIC Cash Value Benefit for Vegetables and Fruit Is Associated With Lower Food Insecurity and Improved Participant Satisfaction in WIC Families With Children”.
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Contributor: Marisa M Tsai
Marisa Tsai, researcher at the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute, received the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Cheri Pies award for her doctoral work to examine intergenerational transmission of food security. Tsai began her work as an NPI researcher in May 2018 and recently started her doctoral studies in Epidemiology in Fall 2021 at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her project will examine intergenerational transmission of food security using data from the National Institutes of Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development National Growth and Health Study, a longitudinal study which began in 1987. The Cheri Pies award–totaling $3,500–is presented to one UC Berkeley School of Public Health graduate student each year who best applies any of the core concepts of the Life Course Theory–which approaches health as an integrated trajectory of growth and development where social, economic, and physical environments impact individual and community health–to their dissertation or other type of scholarly project.