Deanna Hoelscher, PhD, RDN, LD, CNS, FISBNPA

John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion and Austin Regional Dean, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences
Director, Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living
[email protected]

Dr. Hoelscher’s research interests include teaching children and their families to engage in healthier dietary and physical activity behaviors to avoid chronic diseases, with an emphasis on addressing health disparities. Her recent work has focused on implementing interventions and evaluations on policy, systems, and environmental changes, especially focused on maternal and child health. 

Dr. Hoelscher has received multiple federal and foundation grants, and has over 240 peer-reviewed publications, as well as numerous awards for research, teaching, and mentoring. She is principal investigator of the Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition (Texas SPAN) survey funded by the Texas Department of State Health Services, the STREETS project, a NIH-funded natural experiment to determine the effects of Safe Routes to School policies on child physical activity, the Active Middle School Communities grant funded by NIH, and the Executive Sponsor of the Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers and Babies (TCHMB).  She is also Director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, where she oversees the Texas Research-to-Policy Collaboration project.

In 2018, Dr. Hoelscher became Regional Dean of the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Austin, which is the largest of the five regional locations for the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Hoelscher was President of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) from 2012 to 2013 and elected a Fellow of ISBNPA in 2015.  She served as a Member-at-Large for The Obesity Society, and has held leadership positions at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. She is currently serving on the Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee for the 2025-2030 Guidelines.

She has won numerous awards for teaching and research, including the John P. McGovern Professorship in Health Promotion, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017, and has been designated as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas System. She recently received the Oded Bar-Or award from Pediatric Section of The Obesity Society.

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The Gerry Sue and Norman J. Arnold 2019 Childhood Obesity Lecture Series
Arnold School of Public Health at The University of South Carolina

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Deanna Hoelscher
Keynote: "Combating Child Obesity from Population to Policy"

 

Current Projects

ENRICH (Encouraging Nurturing Responsiveness to Improve Child Health)

ENRICH stands for Encouraging Nurturing Responsiveness to Improve Child Health. This research project works to help parents establish healthy eating, activity, bedtime, and screen time routines.

Lunch is in the Bag

The purpose of this intervention is to encourage parents to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches for their preschool children in childcare centers. The goal for this research is the development of new strategies for the promotion of healthy eating practices in children through childcare centers.

STREETS (Safe TRavel Environment Evaluation in Texas Schools)

The STREETS Study (Safe TRavel Environment Evaluation in Texas Schools) is a five-year (2018 – 2023) natural experiment that is evaluating the City of Austin Safe Routes to School program.

CATCH (Coordinated Approach To Child Health)

CATCH is a research-based program designed to guide schools, families and children in healthy eating and physical activity.

Texas SNAP-Ed Evaluation

Texas SNAP-Ed Evaluation, is a two-year project to evaluate, on a statewide basis, the effectiveness of SNAP-Ed nutrition education and obesity prevention programming activities delivered by Implementing Agencies throughout the state of Texas.

HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living)

This project is a clinic-community based intervention to implement an early life-cycle approach to obesity prevention among pregnant women and women with infants from low-income families.

Teaching Kitchen Multisite Trial

The Teaching Kitchen Multisite Trial is a pilot study to evaluate a teaching kitchen-based lifestyle intervention as part of a randomized controlled Multisite Trial with adults with clinically defined obesity and one additional metabolic syndrome component.

Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (TX SPAN)

The Texas SPAN survey was established to track the prevalence of overweight and obese school-aged children in Texas.

Texas Child Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD)

This project will connect the dots between families, pediatricians, schools and local youth organizations to develop community capacity for early detection and effective management of obesity using evidence-based programs like CATCH and MEND.

Active Middle School Communities Project

“Co-Creating and Implementing Contextually Responsive Physical Activity Interventions with Low-Income Adolescents,” also known as the “Active Middle School Communities Project,” is a comprehensive and community-engaged mixed methods study to design and test strategies for improving community-wide and individual-level physical activity outcomes in middle school neighborhoods.

Texas Childhood Obesity Prevention Policy Evaluation (T-COPPE)

This project is a collaborative effort that will study the impact of two recent policies: the Safe Routes to School program and an important rule revision to the federal food allocation package administered by the Texas Women, Infants and Children program.