Who We Are
We are a group of researchers integrating healthcare and social science to address food security and diet-related diseases.
What We Do
Food as Medicine (FAM) is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that integrates healthcare, public health, and social science to address nutrition security and diet-related chronic disease. Decades of research have demonstrated the powerful role that diet plays in preventing and managing chronic disease. Across the country, the Food as Medicine movement is gaining momentum as healthcare systems, researchers, and communities work to translate that evidence into practice.
Penn State is well positioned to contribute to this national movement by bringing together expertise across disciplines to advance research that improves health. The Food as Medicine workgroup creates an opportunity for the research team to build upon the Penn State Food as Medicine Initiative that started five years ago.
Strategic Aims/Goals
A PCORI Capacity Building Engagement Award will establish a FAM Community Advisory Board and stakeholder learning community focused on patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. The SSRI-funded workgroup will build the interdisciplinary Penn State research team needed to translate those priorities into competitive, externally funded research proposals.
Future endeavors include mapping Penn State FAM assets, faculty expertise, and gaps across research, patient care, community outreach, and education to identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and future research development.
Additionally, the workgroup plants to build a coordinated, community-engaged interdisciplinary FAM research network through cross-campus collaboration, stakeholder working sessions integrated into the Penn State FAM Forum, and research priority development to support external grant proposal generation and position Penn State as a national leader in Food as Medicine research and programming.
Workgroup Leads
Chrisa Arcan, PhD, MPH, MBA, RD
Susan Veldheer, DEd, RD
