Master of Public Health

October 28, 2018

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Incentive Structures and Purchasing Patterns at Farmers Markets (FM)

Fruits and vegetables (FV) are part of a healthy diet, yet cost is a barrier for people with limited income. In Washington State, 12% of households face food insecurity, the limited availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, which negatively impacts their health and well-being. About 14% of Washingtonians cannot afford enough food, consequently 15%…

Applying a RE-AIM Framework to Curriculum Fidelity to Evaluate SNAP-Ed Direct Education in Washington State

To evaluate direct education through a curriculum fidelity monitoring approach by applying the public health systems framework of: reach effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance (RE-AIM). It is hypothesized that high curriculum fidelity will generate a significant increase in physical activity and nutrition knowledge among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) participants compared to low curriculum…

Marketing Body Positivity to College-Age Students at Seattle Pacific University

Media and social networking sites (SNSs) are powerful platforms that tend to endorse body dissatisfaction and disordered eating messages amongst college-age young adults. This project was centered around the third annual installment of Body Positive Week at Seattle Pacific University (SPU.) Body Positive Week is a campus-wide event that involves hands-on activities to educate and…

Identifying Gaps in Data for Food Assistance Program Eligibility and Participation in Washington State

Food insecurity, which is the inability to consistently access adequate, nutritious food in a safe, socially acceptable manner, affects 12% of Washingtonians. Several federally-funded, state-administered food assistance programs exist to lift families out of food insecurity, but these programs fall short of serving all eligible clients in the state. United States Department of Agriculture funded…

Increasing Participation in School Meals by Overcoming Parent Perceptions

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) Nutrition Services works hard to provide well balanced meals for their students. However, participation of school meals at SPS remains low. Barriers of participation include parent dissatisfaction and students’ perception of school meals. The purpose of this project was to increase participation of school meals by overcoming parent dissatisfaction, particularly parents…

Assessing the Need for Nutrition Services with the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network Clinic

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are lifelong disabilities caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. Individuals with FASD face varying symptoms including neurocognitive and behavioral issues, both of which can impact the individual’s nutrition status. Compared to their typically-developing peers, children with FASD have a higher risk for deficiencies in several nutrients. The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic…

Food Insecurity Screening at Seattle Children’s Adolescent Medicine Clinic: Current Methods and Recommendations

In King County, 11% of 8th grade students, 12% of 10th grade students, and 16% of 12th grade students reported food insecurity (FI) in 2016 on the Washington Healthy Youth Survey. Students screened positively for FI if they reported their family had reduced or skipped meals in the last 12 months because there wasn’t enough…

The Seattle Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax: A Case Study in Policy

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes have been proposed as a means of curbing the tide of obesity and diabetes in the United States.1 Despite their public health potential, many of these proposed taxes have been met with intense opposition by the beverage industry. The Seattle SSB tax (CB 118965) was proposed in by Mayor Ed Murray…

What did you do before you went into nutrition? I’m from a small rural town on New Hampshire’s seacoast. Growing up there, the extent of my career knowledge was limited to being things like a doctor, teacher, veterinarian, or astronaut. When I started college at McGill in Montreal, I didn’t see a clear career path,…

October 12, 2018

Alicia Yang, RDN

Why did you decide to pursue an MPH in Nutritional Sciences? I was working as a clinical and research dietitian at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, and I noticed that many of my patients were tackling similar issues. They were living and working in an environment that did not support health, they had difficulty accessing…

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