Current Research Support

K01 Career Development Award

Funding Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Title: Development of personalized healthy food incentives to improve diet and
cardiovascular risk
Goals: To study the role of individually targeted coupons to promote healthy food purchases among adults with cardiovascular risk factors in an online environment.
Dates of Project: May 2023-April 2028
Role: Principal Investigator

What’s On Your Plate Rhode Island

Funding agency: Bloomberg Philanthropies
Title: Nutrition Evaluation of the Rhode Island Retail SNAP Incentives Program
Goals: To evaluate the effect of SNAP incentives for fresh fruits and vegetables on fruit and vegetable intake in Rhode Island Households.
Dates of Project: 12/1/22 – 11/30/24
Role: Co-PI (with Alison Tovar)

Completed Research Support

Smart Cart Study ($600,000)

Funding Source: Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research
Title: Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality, and health outcomes among adults
Goals: To study the role of individually targeted coupons to promote healthy food purchases.
Dates of Project: September 2017-Aug 2020
Role: Principal Investigator (with Stephen A. Atlas and Ashley Buchanan)

Determinants of Grocery Purchase Quality in the Food Acquisition and Purchase Study ($25,000)

Funding agency: Rhode Island Foundation Medical Research Funds
Title: Correlations between the dietary quality of US food purchases and diabetes prevalence
Goals: To examine the associations between the dietary quality of US household food acquisitions and county-level diabetes prevalence.
Dates of Project: 06/01/2018 – 12/31/2019
Role: PI (N/A)

National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Multistate Research Project (RI0018-NC1196)

Funding Agency: United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Title: Food systems, health, and well-being: understanding complex relationships and dynamics of change
Goals: (1) Analyze best practices that have proven effective at increasing individual, household, and community food and nutrition security and identify individual and systematic strategies for the development and dissemination of initiatives designed to improve food and nutrition security. (2) Utilize food systems approaches to assess and address nutrition, health and wellness challenges of vulnerable population groups, with a particular focus on food availability, appropriate policy systems, and environmental changes that would increase positive food decision making and improve health outcomes
Dates of project: 7/1/18-9/30/21
Role: Co-Investigator (10%)

Produce for Better Health Foundation ($15,000)       

Funding agency: Produce for Better Health Foundation
Title: Manipulating the sensory variety of fruits and vegetables to increase their intake
Goals: The goal of this study is to investigate whether increasing variety in shapes and colors is associated with greater intake of fruits and vegetables among a convenience sample of adults.
Dates of project: 01/01/15-12/31/16.
Role: PI (with Josiemer Mattei, Christina Roberto, and Vicki Morwitz)

American Heart Association Founder’s Predoctoral Fellowship ($44,000)

Funding agency: American Heart Association (12PRE9320023)
Title: Associations between dietary variety and body adiposity using a novel scoring method.
Goals: The goal of this study is to investigate the association between dietary variety assessed using a novel scoring method and obesity in a large, nationally-representative U.S. sample.
Dates of project: 1/2012-10/2013.
Role: Predoctoral fellow.

Steinhardt Summer Grant Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Development Award ($2,300)

Funding Agency: Steinhardt School, New York University.
Dates of project: 6/2010-8/2010.

Marketing Science Research Award ($9,984)

Funding Agency: Marketing Science Institute (#4-1669)
Title: Mere Belief Effects: The Effects of Food Health Labels on Consumers’ Perceived and Experienced Satiety.
Goals: The goal of this study is to investigate how different descriptive food labels influence food consumption and reported satiety among a sample of NYU students.
Dates of Project: 9/2010-5/2012
Role: Principal Investigator (with Vicki Morwitz and Pierre Chandon).

Other Research Support

Carnegie Corporation of New York/University of Rhode Island Global Faculty Travel Support ($10,000)

Funding agency: Carnegie Corporation of New York/University of Rhode Island
Title: A model of excellence in public health: exploring opportunities for global inter-professional continuing education in Cuba
Goals: To develop novel approaches to provide continuing education opportunities for health professionals in Rhode Island and the region
Dates of project: 6/2016
Role: Nutrition Delegate; grant writer