She completed her PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in Child and Family Development. Her research focuses on family and community contributions to child obesity. Most recently, her research has focused on family-centered interventions to prevent child obesity in low-income populations. These interventions, which have been implemented in WIC and Head Start settings, are based on the principals of community-based participatory research and were developed, implemented and evaluated in collaboration with parents. Current projects focus on parenting around children’s snack food intake, strategies to engage fathers in obesity prevention programs and research, and a large scale community intervention integrating evidence-based programs in multiple sectors (WIC, childcare, schools, afterschool programs and community health centers).