Food Science and Human Nutrition Research Faculty

Professor and Extension Specialist EFNEP

Areas:

• Design, implementation, and evaluation of educational programs targeting limited-resource audiences
• Training and staff development of paraprofessionals
• Breastfeeding promotion and support
• Community-based nutrition education programs

Professor and Extension Specialist, Food Safety

Areas:

• Food Safety Communication
• Post-harvest Produce Safety and Quality
• Food Processing
• Consumer Food Handling Behavior

Professor

Areas:

• The cooking experience as a way to change food behavior and related mediating variables (e.g., attitudes, self-efficacy, preferences) in children and adults

Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Areas:

• Adipose Tissue Regulation (Metabolic and Adipokine)
• Diet Induced Obesity and Hepatic Steatosis
• Visceral Fatty Acids Relation to Insulin Resistance
• Adipose Removal Induced Metabolic Improvements

Associate Professor

Areas:

• Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and the NLR Inflammasome in Obesity-Related Vascular Function

Assistant Professor

Areas:

• Identify foods, particularly those rich in polyphenols such as flavonoids, that exert functional effects on human physiology and health
• Critically examine the clinical efficacy of nutrition and food-related interventions, namely polyphenol-rich functional foods, to improve vascular function and reduce cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk factors in high-risk aging human populations
• Evaluate underlying mechanisms by which nutrition and food-related interventions induce clinical responses
• Explore the bidirectional relationship between nutrition and food-related interventions and food systems as they relate to human health and sustainability
• Inform evidence-based practice and dietary recommendations

Professor and Program Coordinator, Hospitality Management

Areas:

• Consumer behaviors and marketing, hospitality education and learning
• Cross cultural tourism behaviors and management
• DMO (Destination Marketing Organization) management and marketing
• QOL (Quality of Life) issues in the hospitality and tourism arenas

Professor and Interim Department Head

Areas:

• Interplay between dietary eating patterns and exercise/physical activity in regard to energy metabolism and positive and negative energy balance

Associate Professor

Areas:

• Food and Culture Issues
• Food as Symbol
• Small Town Tourism
• Traditional Food Production and Preservation Methods

Assistant Professor

Areas:

• Childhood obesity prevention
• Systems science
• Nutrition policy
• Food industry/organizational behavior
• Food choice
• Parent-child interactions
• Community-based interventions

Assistant Professor

Areas:

• Predictors of Learning Outcomes Among Students in Nutrition Science Courses at CSU.
• Use and perceptions of social media among CSU Extension personnel.
• Structural and functional changes in cardiac muscle following myocardial infarction.
• Modulation of insulin action by various compounds in insulin-resistant tissues.
• Antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid and protein turnover in insulin-resistant muscle.
• Free radical and antioxidant activity in healthy and diseased models.

Assistant Professor

Areas:

• Biological functionality of plant-based foods in treating chronic inflammatory diseases and how processing techniques can be used to enhance these health benefits
• Understanding how protein-polyphenol interactions can disrupt the pathogenesis of celiac disease and other protein-stimulated inflammatory diseases

Associate Professor

Areas:

• The role of microbes in ecosystem functioning with ecosystems ranging from soils to processed food products to the human gut