Biography
Dr. Wolfe received her Ph.D. from the Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, in 1991, and has been a Research Associate in the Division since that time. Dr. Wolfe has conducted research in the areas of childhood obesity, child nutrition and the elementary school environment, food insecurity, community-based nutrition monitoring, postpartum weight retention, and dietary methodology. Since 2003, she has focused on youth nutrition and childhood obesity prevention within Cornell Cooperative Extension, providing research-based technical assistance and training to local nutrition and 4-H educators and others throughout the state, and participating in related program evaluation research. Dr. Wolfe was a key author of the Cornell NutritionWorks on-line course "Preventing Childhood Obesity: An Ecological Approach," is an active member and former chair of the statewide Youth Healthy Eating and Active Living (Y-HEAL) CCE Program Work Team, and was the founding chair of the statewide coalition “New York State Action for Healthy Kids,” part of a national initiative to improve the health and educational performance of children through better nutrition and physical activity in schools. Prior to getting her PhD, Dr. Wolfe worked as a Public Health Nutritionist and WIC Coordinator for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in northern NY.
My current research activities involve developing an evaluation component for the Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness (CHFFF) curriculum for 8-12 year olds, and conducting an ongoing evaluation of the Choose Health Action Teen (CHAT) project in which teens help teach CHFFF to younger youth.
Lent M, Hill TF, Dollahite JS, Wolfe WS, Dickin KL. Healthy Children, Healthy Families: Parents Making a Difference! A Curriculum Integrating Key Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Parenting Practices to Help Prevent Childhood Obesity. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (GEM). (Submitted Sept. 2010, accepted Jan. 2011)
Frongillo EA, Wolfe WS. Impact of participation in home-delivered meals on nutrient intake, dietary patterns, and food insecurity of older persons in New York State. Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly 29:293–310, 2010.
Wolfe WS, Frongillo EA, Valois P. Understanding the Experience of Food Insecurity by Elders Suggests Ways to Improve Its Measurement. Journal of Nutrition. 2003; 133:2762-2769.
Wolfe WS, Frongillo EA Jr. Building household food security measurement tools from the ground up. Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 2001;22(1):5-11.
Wolfe WS, Frongillo EA Jr, Cassano PA. Evaluating brief measures of fruit and vegetable consumption frequency and variety: Cognition, interpretation and other measurement issues. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2001;101:311-318.
Wolfe WS, Sobal J, Olson CM, Frongillo EA Jr, Williamson DF. Parity-associated weight gain and its modification by sociodemographic and behavioral factors: a prospective analysis in US women. International Journal of Obesity, 1997; 21:802-810.
Wolfe WS, Olson CM, Kendall A, Frongillo EA Jr. Understanding food insecurity in the elderly: a conceptual framework. Journal of Nutrition Education, 1996; 28(2):92-100.
Wolfe, WS. Community-Based Nutrition Monitoring: A Method for Increasing Food Security Awareness and Action. In NB Leidenfrost & JL Wilkins (eds), Food Security in the United States: A Guidebook for Public Issues Education (pp. 49-51). Washington, DC: Cooperative Extension System, 1994.
Wolfe WS, Campbell CC, Frongillo EA Jr, Haas JD, and Melnik TA. Identifying overweight school children in New York State: prevalence estimates and related characteristics. American Journal of Public Health, May 1994; 84 (5).
Wolfe WS, Campbell CC. Food pattern, diet quality and related characteristics of school children in New York State. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1993; 93:1280-1284.
Wolfe WS, Sanjur D. Contemporary diet and body weight of Navajo women receiving food assistance. J. Am. Diet. Assoc., 88 (7): 822-827, 1988.
My major effort continues to be supporting statewide CCE youth nutrition programming, in EFNEP, ESNY, and by collaborating with 4-H at the state and local level. I will be doing some further testing of our new Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness (CHFFF) youth nutrition curriculum for 8-12 year olds, and continue to lead the Choose Health Action Teens (CHAT) program, in which teens are trained to help teach CHFFF to younger youth. I also co-chair the Youth Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) Program Work Team, which is helping to support expansion of CHFFF and CHAT through a teaching kit, webinars, and a regional training. I am also part of a project called Eat4-Health through the National 4-H Foundation in which 10 state 4-H extension programs are conducting CHAT and CHFFF. Finally, I am an active member of a multi-state team to develop national youth evaluation tools for the EFNEP program, which involves developing and testing a set of tools for 4 different age groups.
1991, Ph.D. , Community Nutrition, Cornell University
1983, M.S., International Nutrition, Cornell University
1981, B.S., Anthropology, Northwestern University