Elena Runfeldt is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in International Nutrition, working with Dr. John Hoddinott. She earned a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University in 2021. In 2023, she rejoined the Division of Nutritional Sciences after completing a Fulbright fellowship in Barbados, where she designed, implemented, and evaluated a nutrition education program for the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s childhood obesity management initiative, The Yute Gym. Her current research centers on incorporating novel foods into school meals to improve childhood health outcomes. Her dissertation focuses on the delivery of an insect-fortified cracker snack and examines its effects on intestinal health and iron status among undernourished Malagasy schoolchildren. Overall, Elena is passionate about strengthening school feeding systems on a large scale and addressing the double burden of malnutrition. She is particularly interested in returning to the Caribbean to develop and assess context-specific interventions that improve school food environments, promote healthy diets, and prevent childhood obesity.

**Chair:** Dr. John Hoddinott **Microbiology Minor Member:** Dr. Elizabeth Johnson **Epidemiology Minor Member:** Dr. Martin Wells **Field Member:** Dr. Kimberly O'Brien **Ad Hoc Member:** Dr. Megan Parker (PATH)

My doctoral research focuses on school-based nutrition interventions to improve child health in low-resource settings. From February through June 2026, I conducted field research in Madagascar for a cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating a nutrient-dense cricket- and black soldier fly larvae-fortified cracker among 441 school-aged children. I helped lead field implementation alongside Dr. Joanna Upton (Cornell) and Dr. Megan Parker (PATH), collaborating closely with the World Food Programme and local implementing partners CAETIC Development and Cabinet CAST.  I coordinated and conducted repeated data collection, including biological specimen collection and processing and participant-level health and dietary assessments. I also participated directly in delivering and monitoring the 14-week intervention across six schools. This work provided extensive experience in randomized trial implementation, multidisciplinary field team coordination, participant tracking, biospecimen management, and collaboration across community, clinical, and international research partners.  My dissertation examines the intervention’s effects on iron status, the gut microbiome, and intestinal and systemic inflammation. Samples are currently being analyzed at the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar in Antananarivo and Colorado State University. 

This work builds on my earlier field research in Farafangana, Madagascar, where I contributed to an acceptability study of insect-fortified crackers in collaboration with PATH, the Madagascar Biodiversity Center, and Catholic Relief Services that showed the intervention crackers were safe, nutritious, and well-liked. Broadly, I am interested in developing and evaluating scalable, context-specific interventions that strengthen school feeding systems and address the double burden of malnutrition.

Parker, M. E., Stull, V. J., Agme, C. D., Runfeldt, E. N., Upton, J. B., & Hoddinott, J. (2026). Black soldier fly larvae and cricket fortified crackers are a safe, nutritious, and acceptable snack for school children in Madagascar. *Scientific Reports, 16*(1), 27874. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-52709-y

2021, B.S., Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University