Examining Racial Inequities in Food Insecurity

Angela Odoms-Young, Ph.D., is the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition as well as the Director of the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities Program (FNEC) and the New York State Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Her research explores the social and structural determinants of dietary behaviors and diet-related diseases in low-income and Black/Latinx populations and centers on identifying culturally appropriate programs and policies that promote health equity, food justice, and community resilience.
Dr. Odoms-Young has over 20 years’ experience partnering with communities to improve nutrition and health and has contributed to more than 200 academic publications, book chapters, and presentations. She has served on numerous advisory committees and boards, including the National Academy of Sciences Food and Nutrition Board, the Council on Black Health, and the Institute of Medicine committees to develop the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program/School Breakfast Program and to revise the food packages provided in the Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Dr. Odoms-Young has also been a member of the Board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and is currently a member of the American Heart Association Chicago Metro Board, Grow Greater Englewood, and Blacks in Green. She also currently serves as the inaugural Equity Visiting Scholar at Feeding America.

Dr. Odoms-Young received her B.S. in Foods and Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and M.S./Ph.D. in Community Nutrition from Cornell University. She also completed a Family Research Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship examining family processes in diverse populations at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as a Community Health Scholars Fellowship in community-based participatory research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Odoms-Young was on the faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition.

Emily Engelhard is the Vice President of Research and Translation at Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Ms. Engelhard spearheaded Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap project and has published in multiple academic journals, including the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Agricultural Economics. She has over 15 years of experience in applied research and holds a Master’s degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.

For over 25 years, Rut has worked to dismantle systems of oppression with a focus on the intersection of racism and sexism, coming to Oregon Food Bank (OFB) in 2018. Before joining OFB, Rut implemented programs, policies and practices to ensure more equitable services for marginalized communities throughout the region, including the design of Portland Community College’s SE Multicultural Center.

Throughout her journey, Rut has worked to foster supportive, equity-centered environments for individuals and communities at greater risk of violence and marginalization and who are denied access to basic resources such as health, housing and food.

As its Chief Research Officer, Tom Summerfelt, Ph.D., leads the development and execution of Feeding America’s strategic research agenda — a roadmap for developing a deeper understanding of hunger in America — identifying the transformative strategies that will solve hunger and measuring and reporting the organization’s progress along the way. He partners with world-class external research experts to develop and conduct some of the most comprehensive and important studies on food insecurity — studies that are guiding changes in how our country addresses domestic hunger from the ground up. Dr. Summerfelt also partners with the Member Engagement team to translate research and best practices around evaluation and measurement to support Feeding America’s network of food banks. He provides leadership that enhances the alignment of data needs and supports the organization and the network in collecting data to inform success toward meeting its strategic priorities.

Prior to Feeding America, Dr. Summerfelt served as the North America president of Convergence CT, where he worked collaboratively with healthcare providers, life science companies, and payers in using technology to leverage real-world data to improve outcomes across the healthcare ecosystem. Before that, he served as the Vice President of Research and Innovation at Advocate Health Care, where he led a department that managed over 600 research studies at any given time and produced over 200 publications annually. Dr. Summerfelt has spent over 20 years utilizing research and program evaluation as vehicles to create collaboration and partnership among organizations, to make community programs more efficient and effective, and to demonstrate impact in the lives of people. His work has included diverse projects that share a common focus on improving outcomes for vulnerable populations and reducing social disparities.

Dr. Summerfelt earned his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and has held faculty appointments at Vanderbilt, Michigan State University, and the University of Chicago.