2008 Network for a Healthy California Annual Social Marketing Conference

Terie Dreussi Smith, MA Ed

Terie Dreussi Smith of Greenville, South Carolina has served as Supervisor of Prevention Services at a community alcohol/other drug treatment and prevention organization for over nine years, and was instrumental in the organization’s redesign of programs and services for prevention and early intervention clients from generational poverty.

Ms. Dreussi-Smith co-authored Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities with Ruby Payne and Philip DeVol. She is a former public school teacher with years of experience. Terie served as adjunct faculty for several colleges focused on empowering adult students transitioning out poverty.

In her recent consultant work as a grant writer and social program manager for youth-based service agencies, community coalitions and schools, Terie assisted communities to embed Bridges Out of Poverty concepts in redesigning policies and services for families and youth in generational poverty.

Terie has been an author/consultant with aha! Process, Inc. since 1997.

Kelly Brownell, PhD [Presentation]

[image] Kelly Brownell Kelly Brownell is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where he also serves as Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and as Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. In 2006 Time magazine listed Kelly Brownell among “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” in its special Time 100 issue featuring those “.. whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world.”

Dr. Brownell was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in 2006 and served as President of several national organizations, including the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and the Division of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the James McKeen Cattell Award from the New York Academy of Sciences, the award for Outstanding Contribution to Health Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University. He has served in a number of leadership roles at Yale including Master of Silliman College and Chair of the Department of Psychology from 2003-2006.

He has published 14 books and more than 300 scientific articles and chapters. One book received the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Book from the American Library Association, and his paper on "Understanding and Preventing Relapse" published in the American Psychologist was listed as one of the most frequently cited papers in psychology.

Dr. Brownell has advised members of congress, governors, world health and nutrition organizations, and media leaders on issues of nutrition, obesity, and public policy. He was cited as a “moral entrepreneur” with special influence on public discourse in a history of the obesity field and was cited by Time magazine as a leading “warrior” in the area of nutrition and public policy.

Debra Cohen, MD, MPH [Presentation]

[image] Debra Cohen Dr. Deborah Cohen (MD, University of Pennsylvania, MPH, UCLA, Yale, BA) is a researcher in the area of the built environment and health, and is the co-author of “Prescription for a Healthy Nation, A new approach to improving our lives by fixing our everyday world,” published by Beacon Press. She is Board Certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine and currently a Senior Natural Scientist at the RAND Corporation. She previously served on the faculty at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and at the University of Southern California Medical School. Most recently her research studies have been focused in on the role of the built environment in physical activity and dietary behaviors, but she has also done extensive work in STD/HIV control and alcohol policy. She has served on several advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Brazil. She is the Principal Investigator of several grants to assess how local neighborhoods influence physical activity and dietary behaviors. These include a study to assess the influence of environmental and community factors on the likelihood that adolescent girls engage in physical activity, a study to determine whether improvements in the quality or accessibility of parks and recreational facilities result in increases in physical activity among children and adults; and a study to assess how strongly alcohol and food intake is associated with local availability of consumer products.

Joanne F. Guthrie, Assistant Deputy Director for Nutrition in the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) Economic Research Service, USDA [Presentation]

As Assistant Deputy Director for Nutrition in the FANRP, she oversees ERS research and evaluation studies with a special focus on USDA child nutrition programs and on nutrition education provided through food assistance programs (such as Food Stamp Nutrition Education). She is also ERS's representative to the USDA’s Human Nutrition Coordinating Committee and Dietary Guidance Working Group. Her research interests are assessment of dietary intake and the factors that influence it, and nutrition education research and evaluation.
Joanne previously worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and at several USDA agencies, including the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Human Nutrition Information Service, and the Agricultural Research Service. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer Nutritionist and National Health Service Corps Nutritionist.
Joanne holds a Master’s of Public Health degree and a doctoral degree in Human Nutrition and is a registered dietitian.

There are a myriad of factors influencing eating behavior. This session will discuss several of the influences on food purchasing decisions in the low-income community beyond knowledge of nutrition. It will particularly focus on the role played by economics, availability, and quality of fruits and vegetables.

Russ Parsons, Food Columnist , Los Angeles Times

[image] Russ Parsons Russ Parsons has been writing about food for 25 years, including almost 20 years at The Times, where he has also been food editor, managing editor, and deputy editor. He is the author of the cookbooks ‘‘How to Read a French Fry,’’ and “How to Pick a Peach”, which were published by Houghton-Mifflin.

He has won every major American food journalism award, including those from the International Association of Culinary Professionals the Association of Food Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, and the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards. "How to Read a French Fry" was a finalist for two Julia Child cookbook awards.

Isobel R. Contento, Ph.D., CDN [Presentation]
Isobel R. Contento, Ph.D., CDN, is the Mary Swartz Rose Professor in Nutrition Education and Coordinator of the Nutrition Program in the Department of Health and Behavior Studies Nutrition at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her degrees include a B.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research has included studies on food choice in children and adolescents, including the role of an understanding of food system practices on food choice. She has written several comprehensive reviews of the effectiveness of nutrition education and of evaluation measures in nutrition education. Her textbook, Nutrition Education: Linking Theory, Research, and Practice was published in 2007.

Diana Cassady, DrPH [Presentation]

[image] Russ Parsons Diana has 15 years of experience evaluating health promotion programs implemented by community-based agencies, community clinics, and public schools. She has published her studies in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health. She is also an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at U.C. Davis, with a master’s degree in communication from Stanford University and a doctoral degree in health education from the School of Public Health at U.C. Berkeley.