Project Contact: Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Principal Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Christine Markham, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Study Partner
Brighter Bites is an evidence-based coordinated school health intervention proven to improve intake of fruits and vegetables among under-resourced children and their families. This project is to evaluate the efficacy of Brighter Bites among elementary school children in programming cities.
Project Contact: Naomi Tice, MPH
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Project Manager
Naomi Tice, MPH
Center for Health Equity
Research Coordinator III
Wesley Gibson
Center for Health Equity
Research Scientist
Maha Almohamad, MS
Center for Health Equity
The purpose of our study is to assess if a Harris Health System comprehensive Produce Prescription Program (FoodRx), providing consistent access to healthy food plus nutrition education, impacts gestational weight gain, and other health outcomes in low-income, ethnically diverse, at-risk women in Harris County.
Primary Investigator: Marcia Otto, PhD
Project Team
Primary Investigator
Marcia Otto, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
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Kristen Sandulache, RD
Registered Dietitian, School of Public Health
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Savi Appana, MS
Biostatistician, School of Public Health
Ji Yun Tark, MPH
Graduate Research Assistant, School of Public Health
Kimberly Morrison, MPH
Trainee, School of Public Health
Project Partners: MD Anderson Cancer Center and Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The goal of this prospective investigation is to advance scientific understanding of the role and relevance of diet diversity for diet quality and risk of cardiovascular disease among U.S adults.
Project Contact: Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Steven Kelder, PhD
Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Investigator
Courtney E. Byrd-Williams, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Jose-Miguel Yamal, PhD
Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Co-Investigator
Kila Johnson, DDS
Director of Dental Services, Harris County Public Health
Collaborators & Institutions
Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living
Harris County Public Health Houston
CATCH Healthy Smiles is a school-based oral health intervention grounded in theory and evidence, designed to equip students, parents, and school communities with the knowledge and skills to prevent dental caries. Currently, UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, in partnership with Harris County Public Health and CATCH Global Foundation, is conducting a National Institutes of Health-funded cluster randomized controlled trial across 34 elementary schools in Greater Houston, primarily serving under-resourced families, to evaluate the program's effectiveness.
Project Contact: Anne Marie Thompson, MPH
Project Team
Anne Marie Thompson, MPH
Senior Program Manager
Center for Health Equity
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Project Manager
Naomi Tice, MPH
Center for Health Equity
The Community and Stakeholder Engagement Studio (CSES) at the Center for Health Equity offers researchers a consultative service, assisting in effective study design, intervention planning, impactful implementation, evaluation, and sustainability to support health equity for community organizations and their research partners.
Project Contact: Naomi Tice, MPH
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Team
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Ryan Ramphul, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Naomi Tice, MPH
Project Manager, Center for Health Equity
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Wesley Gibson
Research Coordinator, Center for Health Equity
Project Partners
Co-Founder, Texas Consortium for NMDOH
Program Manager, Texas Consortium for NMDOH
Collaborators
The Center for Health Equity has a robust portfolio of Food Is Medicine research and policy activities to inform the evidence base across diverse populations in Texas. In partnership with health systems (e.g., Harris Health, UT Physicians, Legacy Community Health), managed care organizations (e.g., Community Health Choice), and community organizations (e.g., Houston Food Bank, Brighter Bites), the Center is designing and testing different models of FIM programs across different populations, including high-risk pregnant mothers, pediatric populations and adults with diabetes.
Project Contact: Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Principal Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Study Partners
Brighter Bites and Penn State Better Kid Care
This quasi-experimental study examines the short- and long-term effectiveness of the Nurturing Healthy Teachers, a school-based intervention that provides fruits and vegetables plus a web-based teachers' wellness program in improving food insecurity, diet quality and cardiometabolic health among teachers of elementary school age children.
Project Contact: Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Project Team
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Micaela Sandoval, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Sisan Tennyson, MPH
Research Coordinator, Department of Epidemiology
A robust Information Exchange infrastructure leveraging the existing Health Information Exchange (HIE) to coordinate care for multiple social needs of an individual at any given time and allow for healthcare organizations to conduct warm referrals to social service agencies.
Project Contact: Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Investigator
Christine Markham, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Prajakta Yergai, MD
Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School
Co-Investigator
Vinay N. Prabhu, MD
Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School
Co-Investigator
Sandra McKay, MD
Associate Professor, McGovern Medical School
Co-Investigator
Allison Marshall, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cizik School of Nursing
Mallika Mathur
Graduate Research Assistant
Matt Tang
Graduate Research Assistant
Study Partners
Brighter Bites and Penn State Better Kid Care
This comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial evaluates the clinical effectiveness of two different produce prescription strategies (at-home delivery and grocery store vouchers) in improving obesity-related health outcomes and dietary behaviors among a cohort of children aged 5-12 years old who are Medicaid eligible in Houston, Texas.
Project Contact: Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Project Team
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Jemima John, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology
Rosalia Guerrero
Manager, Community Health Workers
Wesley Gibson, MPH
Research Coordinator, Center for Health Equity
Sisan Tennyson, MPH
Research Coordinator, Department of Epidemiology
The Health Equity Collective is a systems coalition focused on improving care coordination across systems to improve non-medical drivers of health (NMDOH) needs in Greater Houston region. The Collective includes more than 300 organizations and ~1500 members with UTHealth Houston School of Public Health serving as the backbone organization.
Project Contact: Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Project Team
Co-Principal Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Study Partners
Brighter Bites: https://www.brighterbites.org/
Legacy Community Health: https://www.legacycommunityhealth.org/programs/school-based-health-care/
Brighter Bites is an evidence-based coordinated school health intervention proven to improve intake of fruits and vegetables among under-resourced children and their families. This project aims to improve chronic disease risk factors in children, families, and communities through a coordinated policies, systems, and environments approach that includes culturally appropriate produce prescription programs, community promotion of nutrition guideline adoption, enhanced physical activity infrastructure and environments, and increased availability of family healthy weight programs through schools and clinics.
Project Contact: Rosalia Guerrero, MBA, CHWI
Project Team
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Heidi Hagen McPherson, MPH
Co-Lead, Health Equity Collective
Rosalia Guerrero, MBA, CHWI
Manager, Community Health Worker Training Program
Jemima John, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Sisan Tennyson, MPH
Research Coordinator, Department of Epidemiology
The Health Equity Collective serves as a convener of leaders across the region’s Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce development efforts. Since 2022, employers, training centers, CHW allies, and CHW leaders have come together to collaborate on opportunities for improving CHW workforce sustainability and health equity through policy and systems changes.
Primary Investigator: Marcia Otto, PhD
Project Team
Primary Investigator
Marcia Otto, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Kristen Sandulache, RD
Registered Dietitian, School of Public Health
Savi Appana, MS
Biostatistician, School of Public Health
Ji Yun Tark, MPH
Graduate Research Assistant, School of Public Health
Kimberly Morrison, MPH
Trainee, School of Public Health
Project Partners: MD Anderson Cancer Center and Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
U-DINE is a longitudinal, multi-cohort study which aims to 1) quantify dietary patterns and insufficiencies and 2) evaluate the impact of cancer and related treatment on suboptimal diet among oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) patients over the continuum of cancer care.
Project Contact: Ru- Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Maria E. Fernandez, PhD
Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Collaborating with the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, this project seeks to develop a measure of organizational readiness for delivering evidence- based interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening among community health center patients. Using semi-structured individual interviews with school staff to understand the readiness of Brighter Bites implementation. Then, the validity of the existing readiness measurement tool in the school setting will be adapted and tested.
Project Contact: Jemima John, PhD
Principal Investigator
Jemima John, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology
Project Partners
The Medical Legal Partnership evaluation framework convenes domains across the RE-AIM framework to qualitatively and quantitatively assess measures of interest around social needs that disproportionately impact populations of low income and of color.
Project Contact: Jemima John, PhD
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Principal Investigator
Jemima John, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
Project Partners
Using a randomized controlled design to determine the preliminary impact of financial coaching plus lifestyle intervention in improving weight loss, while also improving secondary endpoints such as cognitive functioning, metabolic functioning, and psychosocial and health behavior outcomes.
Project Contact: Jennifer Aiyer, MPH, RD
Project Team
Co-Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Principal Investigator
Nalini Ranjit, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Research Coordinator
Naomi Tice, MPH
Project Manager, Center for Health Equity
Research Coordinator
Jennifer Aiyer, MPH, RD
Center for Health Equity
Research Coordinator
Wesley Gibson, MPH
Center for Health Equity
Study Partners
This project assesses if a Houston Food Bank (HFB) comprehensive food prescription (Food Rx) program, providing consistent access to healthy food plus nutrition education, impacts gestational weight gain, other pregnancy and birth outcomes, and food and nutrition security in low-income, ethnically diverse, at-risk women residing in Houston, TX.
Project Contact: Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Project Team
Co-Principal Investigator
Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Principal Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator
William Brett Perkison, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Co-Investigator
Christine Markham, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Cici Bauer, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Ryan Ramphul, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Co-Investigator
Maria Fernandez, PhD
Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Andrew Springer, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Co-Investigator
Sanjay Shete, PhD
Professor, Department of Biostatistics
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Collaborators & Institutions
MD Anderson Cancer Center Acres Homes Cancer Prevention Collaboration
Brighter Bites
https://brighterbites.org/research/
This study evaluates the impact of a Brighter Bites coordinated school health intervention on obesity measures, metabolic parameters, dietary intake, and food security status in low-income children and their parents residing in Acres Homes, a persistent poverty area of Houston, Texas.
Project Contact: Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Principal Investigator
Ru-Jye (Lindi) Chuang, DrPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
To promote healthy diet and participants’ perceived helpfulness and confidence in preparing fruits and vegetables through community cooking classes and cooking video development.
