Our mission 

Our mission is to provide greater visibility to the social and structural determinants (SSDOH) that drive dietary behaviors and diet-related conditions in low income populations and communities of color.

We work collaboratively with a diverse set of stakeholders (including individuals, families, community leaders, government agencies, non-profit organizations and policymakers) to generate research and interventions designed to foster resilience, build community capacity, promote social justice and improve the well-being and quality of life of underserved populations both locally and nationally.

A key focus is to engage in interdisciplinary research that transform institutions, policies and practices to achieve health equity and cultivate equitable food systems through critical inquiry, community engagement, action research and evaluation.

Our team is available to assist agencies, organizations, universities and state and government with evaluation and training needs related to dietary assessment and anthropometrics, qualitative research/evaluation, environmental scans, survey development and analysis, participatory program planning and intervention co-design, and training sessions on several topics including obesity and diet, dietary equity and food justice, basic nutrition, food insecurity, and community engagement.

Led by Angela Odoms-Young, the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition.
 

three college students walking down a city street with clipboards
red tinted image of blueberries

Research projects

Researching food and nutrition security, access and economic and community development.

Students

We may have undergraduate research assistant positions available for some of these projects. 

This project incorporates a scoping review, participatory systems, dynamic modeling,and a Delphi study to achieve the following outcomes:

  • Explain the multiple pathways linking anti-black and anti-indigenous racism and other forms of structural oppression within the food system (and related systems) to inequities in food/nutrition security and diet-related chronic disease outcomes.
  • Understand the mechanisms linking food justice/sovereignty (and broader equity efforts), community/family resilience, and positive mental and physical health outcomes in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations.
    Inform the development of a community-driven, trauma-informed, BIPOC-centered research agenda regarding programmatic/policy interventions to promote food justice/sovereignty and address inequities in food and nutrition insecurity and diet-related chronic disease outcomes.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

This research, currently in evidence synthesis and project development phases, sits at the intersection of food and populations impacted by incarceration.  We aim to understand how carceral food systems and procurement (i.e., food sourcing) interventions function, how individuals interact with the prison food system while in prison, and how individuals navigate food access during re-entry.

This project falls under the umbrella of Dr. Odoms-Young's work as Feeding America's inaugural Visiting Racial Equity Scholar, with the goal of creating, piloting, and revising pan Equity Self-Assessment for the charitable food sector.
 

This research, currently in evidence synthesis and project development phases, is designed to identify the multi-level determinants of diet-related behavior in BIPOC youth of color with autism and/or intellectual and development disabilities (IDD), using Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological model.

In this scoping review, we are assessing health equity principles in precision nutrition research. 

Precision nutrition aims to develop nutrition recommendations for people’s varying circumstances and biological characteristics, including one's economic, social, and behavioral characteristics, genetics, microbiome, metabolism, the food environment and physical activity.​ There are opportunities to progress health equity in precision nutrition studies by assessing if and how health equity principles are applied throughout the course of a study.
 

Publications

Review the complete work of Dr. Odoms-Young on PubMed or Google Scholar.

  • Thompson, T. L., Singleton, C. R., Springfield, S. E., Thorpe, R. J., Odoms-Young, A. (In Press). Differences in Nutrient Intake and Diet Quality Between Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White Men in the United States. Public health reports
  • Kim, S. J., Ramirez-Valles, J., Watson, K., Allen-Mears, P., Matthews, A., Martinez, E., Odoms-Young, A., Daviglus, M., & Winn, R. A. (2019). Fostering health equity research: Development and implementation of the Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) Chicago. Journal of clinical and translational science, 4(1), 53–60.
  • Vásquez PM, Durazo-Arvizu RA, Marquez DX, Argos M, Lamar M, Odoms-Young A, Wu D, González HM, Tarraf W, Sotres-Alvarez D, Vidot D, Murillo R, Perreira KM, Castañeda SF, Mossavar-Rahmani Y, Cai J, Gellman M, Daviglus ML. (2019). Moderate-vigorous physical activity and health-related quality of life among Hispanic/Latino adults in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). J Patient Rep Outcomes. Jul 24;3(1):45
  • Buscemi J, Odoms-Young A, Stolley MR, Schiffer L, Blumstein L, Clark MH, Berbaum ML, McCaffrey J, Braunschweig C, Fitzgibbon ML (2019) Comparative Effectiveness Trial of an Obesity Prevention Intervention in EFNEP and SNAP-ED: Primary Outcomes. Nutrients. May 5;11(5).
  • Singleton CR, Li Y, Odoms-Young A, Zenk SN, Powell LM. (2019) Change in Food and Beverage Availability and Marketing Following the Introduction of a Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Supported Supermarket. Am J Health Promot. May;33(4):525-533
  • Springfield S, Odoms-Young A, Tussing-Humphreys L, Freels S, Stolley M. (2019) Adherence to American Cancer Society and American Institute of Cancer Research dietary guidelines in overweight African American breast cancer survivors. J Cancer Surviv. Apr;13(2):257-268
  • Springfield S, Odoms-Young A, Tussing-Humphreys LM, Freels S, Stolley MR. (2019) A Step toward Understanding Diet Quality in Urban African-American Breast Cancer Survivors: A Cross-sectional Analysis of Baseline Data from the Moving Forward Study. Nutr Cancer. Feb 18:1-16.
  • Weber SJ, Wichelecki J, Chavez N, Bess S, Reese L, Odoms-Young A. (2018) Understanding the factors influencing low-income caregivers’ perceived value of a federal nutrition programme, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Public Health Nutr. Dec 7:1-10
  • Weber S, Uesugi K, Greene H, Bess S, Reese L, Odoms-Young A. (2018) Preferences and Perceived Value of WIC Foods Among WIC Caregivers. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2018 Jul – Aug;50(7):695-704.
    Buscemi J, Odoms-Young A, Yaroch AL, Hayman LL, Loiacono B, Herman A, Fitzgibbon ML. (2018) Society of Behavioral Medicine position statement: retain school meal standards and healthy school lunches. Transl Behav Med. 2018 Apr 13.
  • Singleton CR, Fouché S, Deshpande R, Odoms-Young A, Chatman C, Spreen C. Barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption among farmers’ market incentive programme users in Illinois, USA. Public Health Nutr. 2018 Feb 19:1-5.
  • Kong A, Schiffer L, Antonic M, Braunschweig C, Odoms-Young A, Fitzgibbon M. (2018). The relationship between home- and individual-level diet quality among African American and Hispanic/Latino households with young children. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. Jan 15;15(1):5
  • Odoms-Young A, Bruce MA. (2018) Examining the Impact of Structural Racism on Food Insecurity: Implications for Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities. Fam Community Health. Apr/Jun;41 Suppl 2 Suppl, Food Insecurity and Obesity:S25-S32.
  • Bruce MA, Thorpe RJ Jr, Beech BM, Towns T, Odoms-Young A. (2018) Sex, Race, Food Security, and Sugar Consumption Change Efficacy Among Low-Income Parents in an Urban Primary Care Setting. Fam Community Health. Apr/Jun;41 Suppl 2 Suppl, Food Insecurity and Obesity: S25-S32.
  • Singleton CR, Li Y, Duran AC, Zenk SN, Odoms-Young A, Powell LM. (2017). Food and Beverage Availability in Small Food Stores Located in Healthy Food Financing Initiative Eligible Communities. Int J Environ Res Public Health. Oct 18;14(10)
  • Lewis FB, Price AA, Whitt-Glover MC, Odoms-Young A, Thorpe RJ. (2017) Weight status: A predictor of the receipt of and interest in health promotion information among college students. Californian Journal of Health Promotion. 15 (2): 27-36.
     
women sitting at a conference table

Contact us

Odoms-Young Nutrition Liberation, Food Sovereignty, and Justice Lab
Cornell University
Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
244 Garden Avenue
Ithaca NY 14853

Dr. Odoms-Young is also a collaborator in the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

purple tinted artichokes