Debrah Palmer, Ph.D.

I have a joint appointment between the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Rutgers Cooperative Extension. Thus, my research is geared toward educational issues encountered when delivering nutrition education to the public, most specifically limited resource urban populations. Many of the projects that my group works on are focused on the specific development of a needed curriculum. A research protocol is used in their development. Examples of this work, as well as an overview of the programs that I oversee can be found at my web site: http://www.njfsnep.org.

The remainder of the work done by my research team has a more global spectrum. However, it is all focused around household food security and related nutrition education issues. For example, recent or current projects of this nature are as follows:

Many of the limited resource adults that we work with throughout the state have a difficult time maintaining enough food to feed their families. In other words, they are not food secure. Therefore, many of our program participants have developed coping mechanisms for improving their household food security. Unfortunately, the anecdotes they have related to our field staff suggest that many of the coping strategies they have adopted are fundamentally unsafe. For example, people report the purchase of meat from people who butcher animals in their cellars or people who fish in contaminated waters. These stories have prompted us to begin a formal research investigation to learn from our field staff, as well as program participants, about participants' coping strategies and what questionable food security strategies are used by them.

Academicians in the field of nutrition education are versed in the areas of program delivery and evaluation; however, many of the programs run for limited resource audiences in this country are directed by academicians, but are actually carried out by paraprofessional staff. Over the past five years I have performed research to determine how educational protocols for nutrition education delivery and evaluation can practically be used in the field, and how these protocols can be taught in an understandable format to paraprofessional staff. The results of this work are a process that has been defined and will soon be published as The Nutrition Education Process Manual.

Millions of dollars are spent annually on nutrition education programs for limited resource audiences; however, evaluation used for assessment of these programs is not standardized. Therefore they prevent funders from being able to examine the impact of these interventions. Furthermore, most assessment tools have not undergone sufficient testing for validity and reliability. Over the past several years, I have worked with a national group of profession als to assess the state of measurement in the five areas listed below. This project is aimed at setting a research agenda for future work in this area.

Dietary Quality
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Food Safety Practices
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Resources Management/Shopping Practices
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Environmental/Systems Change
(including access to culturally appropriate nutrition education)
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Household Food Security

Keenan, D.P., R. AbuSabha , M. Sigman-Grant, J. Ruffing, C. Achterberg, J. Ruffing (1999) Factors perceived to influence dietary fat reduction behaviors. Journal of Nutrition Education 31:134-144.

Gemlo, L.R., D.P. Keenan, J. Ruffing, D. Sweet (1998) Focus on fathers: a qualitative study of the nutrition education needs and preferences of fathers;. Journal of Nutrition Education 30;74-80. Keenan, D.P., C. Achterberg, P.M. Kris-Etherton, R. AbuSabha, A. von Eye (1996) Use of qualitative and quantitative methods to define behavioral fat reduction strategies and their relationship to dietary fat reduction in the Patterns of Dietary Change study. J Am Diet 1996;96:1245-1250.

Keenan, D.P. (1996) In the face of diversity: Modifying nutrition education delivery to meet the needs of a changing consumer base. Journal of Nutrition Education 28:86-91.