Sarah Colby, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, was recently awarded a $4.9 million grant targeting childhood obesity by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This multi-state project will use the power inherent in peer-to-peer interactions and social media to encourage healthy eating, particularly the consumption of fruits and vegetables. It is hoped that adopting healthy eating habits early in life will lead to a lifetime of improved health.
As a faculty member in the Public Health Nutrition program, Colby focuses her research on behavioral aspects of eating. She has been a principal investigator or collaborator on grants totaling more than $9 million. Funding has come from the National Institutes of Health, foundations, and corporate sponsors, in addition to the USDA. In addition to her grant writing success, she has two books and 25 refereed publications to her credit. Colby is proving to be an emerging scholar in the field of public health nutrition. In acknowledgement of her success, the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior recognized her with the prestigious Mid-Career Award in 2012.