About the study team

Erica Kenney, ScD, MPH

Erica Kenney is an Assistant Professor of Public Health Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she serves as the director of the PhD program in Public Health Nutrition. Her work investigates how children’s environments can be feasibly changed to promote healthy eating habits through policy change and community action, with one line of her research focusing on how exposure to food marketing influences children’s dietary intake and how the food marketing landscape is changing as children shift from traditional television to mobile devices.

Rebecca Mozaffarian, MS MPH

Becky is a Project Manager in the Nutrition Department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In her role on the Kids APPS project, Becky oversees the project goals; develops research protocols; and assists with data collection, management, and analysis.

Becky’s research focuses on identifying effective policies and strategies to improve child health by improving food, physical activity and screen time environments in early child care, schools, afterschool programs, and community settings.

Becky earned her Master of Science degree in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and her Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Tufts Medical School.

Elizabeth Gunner, RDN

Elizabeth is an MPH candidate in the Nutrition Department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a Research Assistant with the Kids APPS project.

Prior to working with the Kids APPS project, Elizabeth has geared her professional focus thus far toward creating an accessible, accurate, and inclusive health and wellness environment for all, working as a Registered Dietitian (RD/ RDN) in New York. During her professional career, Elizabeth has worked in a clinical setting as a Nutrition Care Manager, in the media as a Nutrition Communication Consultant, and in a start-up company as a Registered Dietitian providing one on one nutrition counseling via Telehealth. In her free time, Elizabeth also enjoys creative outlets such as art, interior design, poetry, and music.

Jasmine Norris, RD

Jasmine is an MPH candidate in the Nutrition Department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a Research Assistant with the Kids APPS project, focused on participant recruitment strategy and data collection.

In 2017 Jasmine received her registration status as a dietitian in California, then worked primarily in school and community nutrition. Her area of interest in graduate school is in food system development and policy advocacy for school and child nutrition programs. In her free time, Jasmine enjoys contemporary and salsa dancing, and inventing culinary techniques to utilize food waste in home cooking.

Matt Lee, MS

Matt is a PhD student in the Population Health Sciences program at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in the Department of Nutrition. His research is focused on evaluating existing and potential nutrition policies and program that are poised to reduce cardiometabolic disease, and works as a data analyst on the Kids APPS team. Prior to joining the team at Harvard, Matt completed a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. When he isn’t knee-deep in R code or any ongoing data analysis, Matt enjoys playing the oboe/English horn with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, trying to find the sunniest of hikes, and making (and eating) new foods.

Meghana Iragavarapu

Meghana Sai Iragavarapu is a recent graduate from Duke University and a Research Assistant with the Kids APPS project. Meghana’s research background is inspired by a belief that “food is medicine,” and spans nutrition science, health behavior change, and digital health interventions. In addition to assisting the Kids APPS project, Meghana works at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a research assistant with the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine.

Sophia Hua, PhD

Sophia Hua is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests lie in obesity prevention and nutrition policy. Before coming to Harvard, she worked as a project coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania, where she primarily focused on a menu label messaging study and evaluating the impact of the Philadelphia beverage tax. She received her B.S. in psychology, her M.P.H. in social and behavioral sciences from Yale University, and her Ph.D in population health sciences from Harvard University.