Newswise — Each year, the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) awards a group of select individuals who have exhibited great dedication to furthering nutrition and health practices and invoke change within their own communities. The society recognized these professionals at the 2021 Annual Conference: Raising Reliance and Resilience.
PRESIDENT’S AWARD
The President’s Award recognizes a member for outstanding service to the field of nutrition education and SNEB.
Winner: Isobel Contento, PhD, CDN | Acceptance Speech
Dr. Contento recently retired as the Mary Swartz Rose Professor of Nutrition and Education, and Director of the Program in Nutrition at Teachers College Columbia University, a position she held for 21 years. Dr. Contento joined the Teachers College faculty as an Associate Professor in 1977 and coordinated the Nutrition Program from 1985-2019. Dr. Contento actually defined nutrition education as the lead author of a monograph on the elements of effectiveness of nutrition education, which was published as the December 1995 issues of the Journal of Nutrition Education, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society. This monograph was used for a decade as a textbook for nutrition education, prior to the publishing of Dr. Contento’s textbook Nutrition Education: Linking research theory and practice in 2007. Now in its fourth edition, and co-authored by Pam Koch, EdD, RDN, the text is considered the standard for the instruction nutrition in the context of multi-disciplinary understandings of the field.
MID-CAREER PROFESSINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Mid-Career Professional Achievement Award is presented to recognize an SNEB member in “mid-career” regarding his/her professional accomplishments in the field of nutrition education and for significant contribution to the mission of SNEB.
Winner: Melissa Olfert, DrPH, MS, RDN, LD | Acceptance Speech
Dr. Olfert is an Associate Professor of Human Nutrition and Foods at West Virginia University and the Principal Investigator for the Olfert Lifestyle Intervention Research Lab. Her research focuses on the prevention of chronic disease through lifestyle intervention approaches.
Dr. Olfert has a record of outstanding achievements with significant contribution to the nutrition education field. In her nomination it was noted, “Dr. Olfert is a collegial scientist who is able to lead and partner with others to tackle nutrition education and behavior projects with broad, reaching scopes. This characteristic is supported by her scholarly outcomes and the ability to garner more than 17 million dollars, both externally and internally, to support these projects. Most importantly, Dr. Olfert has personally focused her lab team in the dissemination of outcomes from these many projects especially in the Appalachian region. She has over 104 manuscripts with 47 as first or senior author.”
EARLY PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The SNEB Early Professional Achievement award is presented to recognize an SNEB member who has made notable contributions in the field of nutrition education and to the mission of SNEB during the early stages of their career.
Winner: Mateja R. Savoie-Roskos PhD, MPH, RDN | Acceptance Speech
Mateja Savoie Roskos is an Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) Nutrition Program in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences at Utah State University (USU). Mateja’s primary research focus is on farmers’ market incentives, SNAP-Ed nutrition education, and food insecurity. The data she collected for her dissertation, The Role of Farmers Market Incentives and Nutrition Education on the Fruit and Vegetable Intake of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participants, was included in grant applications, specifically, the USDA Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) grant, which helped initiate farmers market incentives across the state of Utah.
SNEB NUTRITION EDUCATION RESEARCH AWARD
The SNEB Nutrition Education Research Award will be given to acknowledge outstanding research achievements in the field of nutrition education.
Winner: Amy R. Mobley PhD, RD, FAND | Acceptance Speech
Dr. Amy Mobley is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Health Education and Behavior at the University of Florida’s (UF) College of Health and Human Performance. Her research goal is to understand the multiple influences on dietary behavior and to develop corresponding interventions to improve health, especially in underserved populations. As the principal investigator (PI) of the Nutrition Education and Behavioral Science Research Lab at UF, she aims to integrate research, teaching, and outreach to improve nutrition-related programs and policies.
Dr. Mobley has helped garner over $11 million in external grant funding as both PI and co-investigator from sponsors including the National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, and Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut for her research projects and other projects in which she was involved. To disseminate her research findings, she has presented over 30 times at local, state, regional, national, or international meetings or conferences.
ACPP HEALTH PROMOTION POLICY AWARD
To recognize the efforts of others to shape and promote policies that promote health or healthy lifestyles, the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior’s Advisory Committee on Public Policy sponsors “Health Promotion Policy” awards. These awards will be given to individuals or groups who have significantly contributed to creating and/or implementing policies or policy-based changes that support and positively impact the food and/or physical activity environment.
Winners:
Individual: Margo Wootan, DSc | Acceptance Speech
A longtime and active member of SNEB, Dr. Wootan is one of the most accomplished nutrition educators and advocates in the field. In the 25 years since getting her nutrition degree from Cornell University, Dr. Wootan established and ran one of the largest and most effective nutrition coalitions in the country that, under her leadership, has resulted in increased funding for nutrition and physical activity promotion, and led to the successful passage of historic legislation that provided more resources and set stronger standards for foods and beverages provided in schools. Dr. Wootan co-founded and coordinated the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA), of which SNEB is an active member. This 520-member coalition is recognized as the preeminent voice of the nutrition community and has been instrumental in strengthening nutrition and physical activity funding, programs, and policies at the national, state, and local levels.
Group: HER NOPREN COVID-19 Food & Nutrition Work Group | Acceptance Speech
The Healthy Eating Research (HER), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN) jointly supported an ad hoc COVID-19 Food & Nutrition (F&N) Work Group. Formed in early March 2020, this COVID-19 F&N Work Group aimed to quickly identify and disseminate best practices to bring a full range of nutritious foods and beverages to children to protect their health and reduce their risk of obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to share information and resources, the HER NOPREN COVID-19 F&N Work Group created a website, weekly resource digest, resource links, and shared drive. In addition to sharing best practices among group members, the HER NOPREN COVID-19 F&N Work Group has produced a student summer speaker series; more than 40 peer-reviewed research articles, perspectives, or legislature updates; along with a variety of fact sheets, infographics, press releases, and editorials. Besides hosting more than 19 meetings to distribute key information, the workgroup leaders presented more than 23 presentations including briefings to key decision-makers
PROGRAM IMPACT AWARD
The Nutrition Education Program Impact Award recognizes an individual or group for a nutrition education program, practice, or intervention that has resulted in documented changes in behavior. One winner will be selected and presented with the award at the annual conference.
Winner: Abriendo Caminos: Clearing the Path to Hispanic Health (presented to Dr. Margarita Teran-Garcia) | Acceptance Speech
Abriendo Caminos: Clearing the Path to Hispanic Health is a multi-site randomized intervention program that aims to decrease the prevalence of obesity among Hispanic families by providing culturally tailored nutrition, physical activity, and family wellness education. By the end of the program, the families were sharing tips to increase their children’s fruit and vegetable intake. The Abriendo Caminos intervention was also effective at improving the diet quality of Hispanic mothers. Aside from providing nutrition education, Abriendo Caminos provided experiential learning opportunities to Hispanic students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Overall, the Abriendo Caminos program has successfully improved dietary patterns and trained future professionals to work and meet the specific needs of the Hispanic population.
The Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior is honored to present these awards to the named individuals who have empowered others to learn and practice nutrition. Their contributions to the health and nutrition community have inspired change and empowered others to pursue knowledge within their realm of expertise.
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Journalists are invited to attend at no cost. Contact Jordan Nussear, communications coordinator, at [email protected] to obtain credentials.
ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR
The Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior is an international organization of nutrition education professionals who are dedicated to advancing food and nutrition education research, practice, and policy that promote equity and support public and planetary health. To learn more, visit www.sneb.org.
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