Roni

A.

Neff

, PhD, ScM, AB

I research ways to advance resilient, equitable, and healthy food systems, with focus on wasted food, food system resilience, and food system worker concerns. I primarily use qualitative, survey, and policy research tools. I have played a leadership role in growth of the field of food systems and public health through my research, education, organizational and policy activities. I edited the widely used textbook, Introduction to the US Food System: Public Health, Environment, Equity, which contributed to the rise in educational offerings in this field, and am currently at work on the 2nd edition. I serve on the Board of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and previously led food systems efforts within the American Public Health Association. I lecture widely, have served in many advisory roles, and have been frequently quoted in the news media. 

     Food system resilience: I work to support food security in the face of natural and human-made disasters, by researching and promoting community planning. Building on work begun with Baltimore City government in 2015, which produced one of the first municipal food system resilience planning documents in the U.S., my team partnered with five US cities to develop a guidebook for local governments working on food system resilience planning (2022; NSF, CLF, BAHI, 21st Century Cities). Multiple city governments in the U.S. and internationally are now using the guide. We are leveraging the Guide’s dissemination and evaluation activities to strengthen momentum in the nascent field of community food system resilience efforts and are exploring future project opportunities. 

     Wasted Food: I have been recognized as a national expert on wasted food. I co-direct the national research network on wasted food (NSF, 5 years, $15M). Among our RECIPES projects, my team recently completed a project convening front-line workers at the Albertsons retail chain, the 2nd largest in the country, to design worker-centric food donation interventions. I am also a co-PI on the CHEF-WPM project evaluating TikTok-style videos in which chefs provide culinary tips to help consumers prevent food waste (EPA).  

     Food system workers: I was invited to collaborate with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on a novel effort to understand food insecurity as a social determinant of worker injury and illness, and to explore related interventions. This effort builds on a throughline of occupational injury/illness work dating back to my dissertation. 

     Education: I have received annual recognition for teaching excellence since 2010. I co-lead our department's PhD track focused on Environmental Sustainability, Resilience and Health, and I mentor and advise numerous PhD, DrPH, MHS and MPH students. I teach courses on the Baltimore food system and food system resilience. I serve on several education-related committees, and co-direct the school's food systems MPH Concentration and its food systems Certificate program. 

     Center for a Livable Future: I engage with public health practice and with broader food system issues through my longtime role at the school's Center for a Livable Future, an academic center focused on food systems & public health.