Rujia Xie (she/her) is a second-year PhD student in Nutrition with minors in Demography and City and Regional Planning. Working in Dr. Laura Bellows’s lab, Rujia’s research interest lies at the intersection of health behaviors, built environments, safety net programs, and social equity. Rujia earned her BA from Duke University, double majoring in Public Policy and Global Health with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. During her PhD, Rujia aims to quantify and visualize the structural stressors and spatial determinants behind individual health behaviors, advancing health equity and informing public policies through transdisciplinary research and cross-sector advocacy.

(1) Xie, R., Cao, Y., Yang, J-A., Tribby, C.P., Voong, C., & Jankowska, M.M. (2025). Measuring Access to Culturally Appropriate Food and Associations with Diabetes among Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders. Public Health Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980025101444. (2) Wood, A., Daly, J., Folger, J., Xie, R., & Wilson, N.L.W. (2025). Cultivating an ethos of “everyday convergence”: insights from the Multiscale RECIPES Network for food waste reduction. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12, 1658. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05905-6. (3) Xie, R. (2025). Beyond supermarkets: ethnic stores, food environments, and the limits of the Food Access Research Atlas. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, 1655436. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1655436.

2024, B.A., Public Policy, Global Health, Gender and Sexuality Studies (minor), Duke University