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Since 2015, I have been leading a UM research team in the external evaluation of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems' efforts to build food systems networks in support of the Michigan Good Food Charter - an effort to strengthen local economies and equitable, healthy food access across the state through a collective impact model. Since 2017, I have also been involved in research in Kenya and Vietnam with UM and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) partners examining the data access and cross-sector collaboration challenges of operationalizing "sustainable diets". I have also pursued food systems research in Bolivia since 2007. My most recent collaboration with two other researchers in the UM Sustainable Food Systems Initiative (Andy Jones and Jennifer Blesh) studied two metropolitan areas of Bolivia, where we investigated the influence of livelihoods, diets, food environments, and food production practices on the double burden of nutrition, an issue rising globally in low-income countries where undernutrition persists alongside rising overnutrition and diet-related chronic disease. Through a Fulbright in 2021, I plan to examine how Bolivia’s Promotion of Healthy Food Law is affecting urban food systems planning, particularly the role that street food vendors play in shaping urban school food environments. |
In the past, I have studied the impacts of federal work requirements on food insecure individuals and organizations in my county (Washtenaw, MI) who step in as the state retrenches from providing key social support systems like SNAP (aka "food stamps"). I have also worked on studies in Bolivia and multi-country comparisons focused on mainstreaming nutrition into national policy agendas, the challenges of multisectoral food policy, factors constraining nutrition interventions in rapidly urbanizing contexts, approaches for integrating evidence-based and experiential knowledge in food and nutrition evaluation, and "adaptive" forms of food policy implementation (i.e. iterative, collaborative, negotiated).
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