Nutritional, Lifestyle and Health in Early Life

Our objective is to identify effective lifestyle strategies including nutrition and physical activity to facilitate positive behavior change during early life (preconception through adolescence) in the effort to prevent and/or reduce the burden of chronic disease and micronutrient deficiencies, through our expertise in teaching, research, and outreach at the individual, family, community, and global level.

Research Project

  • The Blossom Project. Improving the lives of women and their children…one pregnancy at a time
    • “Be-Well”; a randomized controlled trial to promote healthy eating and active living during pregnancy to reduce excessive gestational weight gain
  • SWITCH Childhood Obesity Prevention Program Dissemination Project
  • Identifying novel iron compounds to improve iron bioavailability to reduce incidence of iron-deficiency anemia.
  • The role of stress neurobiology and brain development in children using biomedical big data.
  • Sociocultural predictors of child growth status in rural communities worldwide

Faculty Interests

Christina Campbell, PhD, RD: Pregnancy, physical activity, first 1000 days of life, developmental origins of health and disease, obesity prevention, gestational diabetes, diabetes.

Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, PhD: Childhood Obesity Prevention, Families, Parent Modeling, Physical Activity

Melha Mellata, PhD

Wendy White, PhD, RD: Micronutrient, biofortification, beta-carotene, hidden hunger, vitamin A

Donna Winham, DSc, RDN: Health benefits of beans; dietary acculturation; child growth