Leveraging Member Expertise: Profiles and Links to Resources
Please email Pamela Rothpletz-Puglia if you’d like to add your profile as a resource for others: pr.puglia@rutgers.edu

Heewon L. Gray, PhD, RDN
- Associate Professor, University of South Florida College of Public Health (hlgray@usf.edu)
- Specializes in behavioral nutrition to improve eating and prevent diet-related diseases among children and adolescents, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder.
- Expertise in mixed methods, systematic and scoping reviews, instrument development, and validation.
- www.GrayNutritionLab.com
- Bibliography
Pamela Rothpletz-Puglia, EdD, RDN
- Professor, Rutgers University (pr.puglia@rutgers.edu)
- Expertise in Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research and Pediatric Nutrition
- A focus on community-engaged and person-centered approaches to research, teaching, and nutrition practice
- Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Lab includes some resources available to all: tinyurl.com/QualandMMRLab
- Bibliography
Rickelle Richards, PhD, MPH, RDN
- Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Service (rickelle_richards@byu.edu)
- Research interests: Community nutrition, with a special interest in low-income populations
- Expertise in qualitative data collection and analysis and testing surveys for validity and reliability
- Faculty profile
Barbara Lohse, PhD, RDN
- Professor and Department Head, Wegmans School for Health and Nutrition, College of Health Sciences and Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology (balihst@rit.edu)
- Dr. Lohse has experience providing evidence-based, theory-driven nutrition education to low-income audiences in Pennsylvania and beyond
- Expertise in survey development and validation; intervention evaluation
- Director of NEEDs Center
Tracy Noerper, PhD, RDN, LDN
- Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, Lipscomb University (tracy.noerper@lipscomb.edu)
- Research interests: Food security, maternity and child nutrition, and post-secondary online education
- Dr. Noerper has expertise in a variety of research perspectives from meta-analysis to cross-sectional research
- Bibliography
Sina Gallo, PhD, MSc, RDN
- Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences Department in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Georgia (sina.gallo@uga.edu)
- Dr. Gallo's research focuses on maternal, infant and children nutrition in areas such as adherence and appropriateness of vitamin D policies; her more recent work has focused on improving the accuracy of of children's dietary assessment
- Dr. Gallo holds expertise in secondary analyses of large national cohorts
- Child Diet and Health Disparities Research Lab
Cassandra Nguyen, PhD
- Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis, Department of Nutrition (casnguy@ucdavis.edu)
- Dr. Nguyen's research focus is on implementation evaluation, diet quality and well-being among Native communities, and food security screening integration into health care services.
- Dr. Nguyen has research methods expertise in systematic and scoping reviews, mixed methods research, content and thematic analysis, mixed effects and longitudinal analysis, Content validity; inter-rater reliability; test-retest reliability, and equivalent forms reliability
- Google Scholar Profile
Shante Jeune, PhD, RDN
- Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida, Department of Health Sciences (shate.jeune@ucf.edu)
- Dr. Jeune's research focuses on behavioral and community-based approaches to internal regulation, diet quality, eating behaviors, and obesity prevention.
- Dr. Jeune's has expertise in theory-based interventions, research with minority and underserved populations, the Healthy Eating Index, 24-hour dietary recalls, and eating behavior assessment
- Faculty Profile
Allison Berg, PhD
- Associate Professor and Extension Nutrition and Health Specialist, University of Georgia (alisoncberg@uga.edu)
- Dr. Berg's research evaluates community Extension nutrition programs for chronic disease prevention and management, emphasizing implementing evidence-based interventions like the National DPP using mixed methods and implementation science.
- Faculty Profile
Susana Matias, PhD
- Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist, University of California, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology (slmatias@berkeley.edu)
- Dr. Matias is an epidemiologist with expertise in diverse study designs and quantitative analysis methods.
- Dr. Matias has expertise in repeat measurements analysis, hierarchical/mixed modeling, propensity score matching, cluster RCTs, acceptability trials, longitudinal study designs, secondary data analysis of population-based surveys, evaluation of community-based programs, and psychometric analysis.
- Faculty Profile
