B11 Savage Hall
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.
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.
Cornell University Ph.D. 1991 Community Nutrition
Cornell University M.S. 1983 International Nutrition
Northwestern University B.S. 1981 Anthropology