Congratulations to Navika Gangrade, RD on being awarded the Alan D. Mathios Research & Service Grant from the College of Human Ecology.

The Alan D. Mathios Research and Service Grant funds Human Ecology students’ research and service activities that further the mission of the College to improve lives by exploring and shaping human connections to natural, social, and built environments. The Human Ecology Alumni Association awards these grants bi-annually to qualified students in the College of Human Ecology, and funds proposals that extend Alan Mathios’ legacy of visionary leadership and service in one or more of the following ways:

• Benefiting communities (Cornell, Ithaca, New York City, and others)
• Exploring innovative and/or creative solutions to problems
• Rigorously testing relationships between activities and their effects/impact
• Disseminating knowledge that can improve living conditions, quality of life, and/or health and well-being
• Promoting diversity and educating against intolerance

Navika is a 3rd year combined Ph.D./R.D. student working with Dr. Tashara Leak and a predoctoral fellow for the NIH-funded Institutional Training Grant (T32) in Maternal and Child Nutrition. Navika earned her B.S. in Dietetics from the University of Delaware where she developed an interest in examining how the built environment influences food choice. She completed her dietetic internship at Cornell University/University of Rochester Medical Center and became a Registered Dietitian in 2019. In her current position, she will design and pilot a youth advocacy and healthy snacking program for racially/ethnically diverse adolescents from low-income communities in NYC, in an overall aim to remediate diet-related health disparities and promote health equity. She plans to use funding from the Alan D. Mathios Research & Service Grant to explore the factors that influence snacking among racially/ethnically diverse and low-income adolescents in NYC. This information will help her design a culturally appropriate and relevant curriculum for the youth advocacy and healthy snacking program. 

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