The Department of Nutrition and Food Science is excited to welcome Dr. Alison Gustafson, Assistant Professor, to the faculty. Dr. Gustafson earned a Ph.D. in nutrition epidemiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. Prior to enrolling in the doctoral program, Dr. Gustafson worked in local and state health departments with a focus on community health for disadvantaged populations. She received a master's in public health from Boston University and a bachelor of science in dietetics. As a master's student, she spent a year in Zimbabwe working with AIDS orphans.
Dr. Gustafson is an accomplished researcher in the areas of obesity and weight loss. She has published several articles focused on weight loss interventions and the role of the food environment in the success of weight loss. Additionally, she has conducted significant research exploring the food environment as a distal determinant of obesity in rural populations. Her initial research plans at University of Kentucky include assessing the food store environment in the Appalachia region and looking at the association between the food environment in rural settings with diet and obesity.
Dr. Gustafson is active in professional associations, including the American Dietetic Association, The Obesity Society and the American Public Health Association. She will be teaching research courses in nutrition as well as the community nutrition course in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science.