Our People
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Our Staff
The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is a fully-staffed remote team of 55 across 24 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.,
with strong roots in Omaha, Nebraska.
LEADERSHIP
SCIENTISTS & POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
Lisa Akers, PhD, RDN, IBCLC, RLC, FAND, FILCA
Research Scientist, WIC
Harrisonburg, Virginia
PROJECT MANAGERS
Elise Mitchell, MS, MPH
Project Manager, Produce Prescription Programs
Brookline, Massachusetts
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
FINANCE & OPERATIONS
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Contracted Researchers and Partners
Melissa Akers, MPH, CPH
Expertise in produce prescription programs, food insecurity and its health implications, community-based research and program evaluation.
Kelli Wilson Begay, MS, MBA, RDN
Expertise in health communication, community nutrition and advocating for wellbeing of underserved populations.
Jennie Hill, PhD
Expertise in community-based research and community engaged approaches, built environment assessment, physical activity behavior interventions and measurement and health equity.
Danelle Myer
Expertise in electronic and print communication, media relations and marketing strategy.
Laurel M. Sanville, MS, RDN, LD
Expertise in nutrition education with resource challenged populations, community-based interventions and produce prescription projects.
Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS
Expertise in produce prescription programs, food security and health outcomes, and federal nutrition policy.
Justin Shanks, PhD
Expertise in public health, evaluation and strategy.
Sarah Stotz, PhD, MS, RD, CDE
Expertise in food security, SNAP-Ed and qualitative research.
Scientific Advisory Committee
Ken Resnicow, PhD
Irwin M. Rosenstock Collegiate Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and UM Cancer Center Director of Health Disparities Research
Dr. Resnicow is an internationally recognized expert in design and evaluation of health promotion interventions and motivational interviewing, and is a leading expert in conceptualizing and designing culturally sensitive community-based interventions for health promotion. He is also an expert in community-based interventions for nutrition, physical activity and smoking prevention in minorities. He specializes in theory-based tailoring including ethnic identity and self-determination theory. His research interests include the design and evaluation of health promotion programs for special populations, particularly cardiovascular and cancer prevention interventions for African Americans; understanding the relationship between ethnicity and health behaviors; and motivational interviewing for chronic disease prevention.
Mary Story, PhD, RD
Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs, Community and Family Medicine, Duke University and the Duke Global Health Institute, Durham, NC
Prior to her work at Duke, Dr. Story was Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, where she was also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine. She concurrently serves as Director of the National Program Office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program that supports research on environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity. She has conducted numerous school and community-based environmental intervention and obesity prevention studies for children, adolescents and families.
Lila J. Finney Rutten, PhD
Professor of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Chair of Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic
Dr. Lila J. Finney Rutten received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Miami University and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Harvard University. Following her completion of post-doctoral training through the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, Dr. Finney Rutten remained at NCI as a Project Officer and Behavioral Scientist until 2012. Dr. Finney Rutten then joined Mayo Clinic as the founding Director of the Population Health Science Program in the Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. Dr. Finney Rutten is an interdisciplinary scientist with expertise in social and behavioral science, implementation science and social and behavioral epidemiology. Her program of research examines factors related to cancer prevention and control and is focused on implementation and evaluation of evidenced-based cancer prevention and control strategies to improve population health.
Board of Directors
Brian O’Malley
Chair
Chef-Instructor and Executive Director
Institute for the Culinary Arts
Metropolitan Community College
Kathleen Lodl, PhD
Treasurer, Chair of Finance and Audit Committee
Associate Dean, Extension 4-H Youth Development
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
