Dr. Alexandra van den Berg On “Growing Healthy Futures: The Impact of School Gardens on Children's Well-Being”

As part of the Department of Nutritional Sciences 2024-2025 Seminar Series, Dr. Alexandra van den Berg will give a talk on the impact of school gardens on children's well-being. Dr. van den Berg is a professor in Behavioral Science and Health Promotion at the UTHealth School of Public Health in Austin. She is also the Associate Director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living. Over the past 25 years, Dr. van den Berg has built a research program focused on health disparities related to limited access to healthful foods. More specifically, her research focuses on the development and evaluation of environmental and policy strategies targeting different aspects of food systems to create sustainable changes that impact individuals’ dietary patterns. Recent research studies focus on Food Is Medicine, school gardens, and food insecurity. Most recently, this research has evolved to focus on sustainable food systems, climate change and future food security. Her research is informed by both Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Team Science, and her studies involve extensive collaborations among many different partners, including community organizations, faculty from other universities, community residents, local health workers.