FOLDER AGM 2026

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What is a paper you recently published? What excited you about the question you answered?

One recent paper I published examined whether men’s diet quality patterns before becoming fathers predict the food parenting practices they later adopt in fatherhood. Using longitudinal data, we found that fathers who increased Healthy Eating Index scores across adolescence were more likely to engage in supportive food parenting practices, particularly structure-related practices such as modeling healthy eating, limiting unhealthy foods, and monitoring children’s intake of sweets and snacks. They were also less likely to use coercive control practices, such as using food as a reward or to manage children’s emotions. What excited me most about this research was the opportunity to study fatherhood from a life-course perspective. Much of the literature on child nutrition focuses primarily on mothers or on behaviors occurring only after children are born. Our findings suggest that adolescence may represent a critical preconception window, where men’s own health behaviors can shape not only their future dietary habits, but also the parenting practices they adopt years later as fathers. I also found it exciting because it highlights the importance of including fathers in nutrition and public health research and suggests that promoting healthy behaviors early in life may have intergenerational benefits.

De Oliveira, M.H., Lo, B.K., Lee, M.M. et al. Men’s preconception diet quality patterns predict supportive food parenting practices: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-026-01914-z

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

I usually say that I study how parents’ habits and family environments are related to children’s health, especially children’s dietary intake and growth. A large part of my work focuses on fathers, because they are often understudied in child nutrition research. For example, I study whether dietary patterns that men develop during adolescence are associated with the way they interact with their children around food years later, and how these factors relate to children’s fruit, vegetable, fast-food, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake.

How would you describe your program of research and its significance?

My research program focuses on intergenerational determinants of child and family health, particularly the role of fathers’ preconception health, parenting practices, and family environments in shaping children’s nutrition and growth trajectories. I combine longitudinal cohort data with advanced quantitative methods to study how health behaviors across the life course be associate with parenting and offspring outcomes. The significance of this work is that it expands the traditional focus on mothers by highlighting fathers as important contributors to child health. It also emphasizes that health promotion before parenthood may have benefits that extend across generations.

What inspired you to pursue a career in research? What drives you to continue in this path?

I was always interested in understanding why health inequalities emerge and how early-life experiences shape health across the lifespan. During my training in public health nutrition, I became especially interested in growth, nutritional assessment, and the social and family factors that are associated with health outcomes. What continues to motivate me is the possibility that research can contribute to improving public health policies and family well-being. I also enjoy the process of answering complex questions using data and translating findings into practical implications.

What is a project you’re working on right now that you’re excited about?

Building on previous research showing that fathers who increased Healthy Eating Index scores across adolescence were more likely to engage in supportive, structure-based food parenting practices and less likely to use coercive control practices during fatherhood, I am currently working on a complementary mediation study examining whether these paternal diet quality patterns during adolescence are associated with children’s dietary intake through food parenting practices and family meal frequency. Preliminary findings suggest that fathers in the Increasing Healthy Eating Index pattern were more likely to have children with higher vegetable intake (>1 time/day), partly mediated by structure-based food parenting practices. These findings suggest that health behaviors established long before parenthood may shape not only future parenting practices, but also children’s dietary intake across generations. I am also excited about another related project examining bidirectional associations between fathers’ food parenting practices and children’s dietary intake over time. In this study, we found reciprocal associations between higher paternal structure-based food parenting practices and children’s vegetable intake (>1 time/day) and fast-food intake (<1 time/week), as well as between lower coercive control practices and children’s sugar-sweetened beverage intake (<1 time/week). These findings suggest that fathers may shape children’s dietary intake, while children’s dietary intake may also shape how fathers interact with them around food over time. Together, these studies support a more dynamic and intergenerational perspective on family nutrition and child health.

Given unlimited funding, what would your dream research project be?

With unlimited funding, I would love to develop a large international longitudinal study following individuals from adolescence into parenthood and then following their children across childhood and adolescence. The goal would be to better understand how health behaviors and family environments across generations are associated with children’s growth, dietary intake, and long-term health trajectories. I would be especially interested in collecting detailed information on fathers, since they are still underrepresented in many child health studies. I would also want to combine nutritional, behavioral, social, and biological data to better understand how family dynamics and early-life experiences are linked to child health over time.

Another important aspect of my dream project would be including diverse populations from different socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. Many existing growth references and family health studies are based on limited populations, so I think it is important to build research that is more globally representative and applicable across different contexts.

How do you envision your research impacting public health policies or practices?

I hope my research contributes to greater recognition of fathers as important contributors to child and family health. I also hope this research supports a more life-course perspective in public health, recognizing that health patterns established early in life may have implications across generations. For researchers hoping to translate their work into policy or practice, I think it is important to communicate findings in a clear and accessible way and to collaborate with communities, healthcare professionals, and policymakers so that research addresses real-world needs.

What is the most important advice you received as an early career researcher?

One of the most important pieces of advice I received as an early career researcher was that research only has real impact if people outside academia can understand and use it. That advice changed the way I think about science and communication. Since then, I have tried to focus not only on conducting rigorous research, but also on translating findings into language that is accessible to families, practitioners, and policymakers. I think this is especially important in public health research, where the goal is ultimately to improve people’s lives and inform real-world decisions.

What is your #1 piece of advice for emerging early career researchers?

My number one piece of advice for emerging early career researchers is to learn how to communicate your research beyond academia. Conducting strong research is essential, but it is equally important to explain why the work matters in a way that is accessible to different audiences, including communities, practitioners, and policymakers.

What’s something you have learnt about your research or yourself that was unexpected?

One unexpected thing I learned through my research was how important fathers are in shaping family health and children’s dietary intake. As I started working more closely with father-focused data, I realized there were many important family dynamics and health patterns that had received much less attention in the literature than I initially expected.

What achievement are you most proud of in your research journey so far? (And why?)

One achievement I am especially proud of is developing a line of research examining how men’s preconception health during adolescence may be related to family health and children’s dietary intake years later, particularly related to parenting practices.

What is a challenge have you faced as an early career researcher?

One challenge I faced as an early career researcher was learning how to work in interdisciplinary teams, where researchers from different fields often approach the same question in very different ways. Over time, I learned the importance of communication, flexibility, and being open to different perspectives. I found that some of the strongest research comes from combining ideas across disciplines, and that clearly communicating research to different audiences is an essential skill.

What skills do you think have been most instrumental in your work?

I think the skills that have been most instrumental in my work are research methods, statistical and analytical skills, and the ability to work across disciplines. Much of my research involves large longitudinal datasets and advanced quantitative methods, so having a strong analytical background has been essential.

How would you describe your program of research and its significance?

My program of research focuses on social inequalities in health. Health is not equally distributed across society. Individuals and communities with fewer resources and less structural power often experience a disproportionate burden of disease, shaped by intersecting social and environmental determinants. The significance of this research lies in its commitment to identifying, understanding, and addressing these inequities. By highlighting where and why inequalities occur, and by working alongside communities and policymakers, the goal is to contribute to public health approaches that are not only effective, but also equitable.

How do you envision your research impacting public health policies or practices? (What recommendations do you have for others hoping to translate their research into policy or practice?)

Through our work with co-creation with local stakeholders, we aim to develop a practical guide that is meaningful and usable for local governments. Rather than introducing new interventions, the goal is to help stakeholders make effective use of existing national strategies and policies by providing a structured guide to support implementation. Including, strengthening connections between stakeholders, understanding the community’s needs, and raising awareness of existing resources to make interventions more sustainable and impactful. Translating research into practice requires engaging stakeholders early, listening to their priorities, and designing outputs that are directly relevant to their daily work.

What is the most important advice you received as an early career researcher? (And why do you say that?)

While often feeling like an individual journey, a PhD is truly a collective effort. As an international student, it can sometimes feel isolating or overwhelming, and the scope of the work may seem larger than what one person can manage alone. However, science is inherently collaborative. Supervisors, colleagues, community partners, and peers all contribute perspectives, support, and knowledge that shape our research process. Understanding that I did not have to do everything alone helped me embrace the experience. It reinforced the idea that research is not just about producing knowledge, but about learning together and contributing to a shared purpose.

Connect with Juanita on LinkedIn.

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

Women engage in significantly lower levels of physical activity (PA) due to structural, social, and environmental barriers that are intertwined and perpetuated throughout the life cycle. Our work consists of analysing these inequalities from a socio-ecological and intersectional perspective in Madrid, exploring the influence of access to exercise resources in PA levels, and how this association may be modified by gender, age, socioeconomic status and women’s perceptions. Based on qualitative and quantitative evidence, we will develop an index to assess access to physical activity resources in urban environments for women at different stages of life.

What inspired you to pursue a career in research? What drives you to continue in this path?

My motivation for research stems from a statement we often hear in the field of PA: ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ This presupposes that physical activity depends solely on individual willpower, but evidence has shown that the answer to this question is much more complex. There are structural, social and environmental barriers that limit the population, especially women, throughout their lives. After studying a Physical Activity and Sports Sciences degree and Sports Management Master, and from a gender and socio-ecological perspective, my research seeks to reduce gender inequalities in access to and participation in physical activity, and, consequently, to have a positive impact on the health of the population.

How do you envision your research impacting public health policies or practices?

The research has clear implications for public policies aimed at reducing gender inequalities in physical activity. A tool for monitoring physical activity deserts could be developed, with a special emphasis on those environments that facilitate access to exercise for women, as well as the need for strategies to reduce gender inequalities in the promotion and practice of physical activity. Policy briefs could also be published and disseminated to make this knowledge accessible. I recommend a good strategy for communicating results, differentiating between the target audience (public entities, stakeholders, athletes, the general public, etc.) in order to use different strategies.

What is your #1 piece of advice for emerging early career researchers?

My advice to those starting out in research is to be patient and learn to enjoy the process. An academic career is a marathon, not a sprint. If you find meaning in each stage – reading, analysing, writing, debating – you will build a solid and sustainable foundation. Constant curiosity, daily discipline, and maintaining the non-professional activities you enjoy are the keys to relish a career in research.

Interested in connection with Paula? Check out her LinkedIn.

What is a paper you recently published? What excited you about the question you answered?

In a recent study, we wanted to know whether intensity, volume, or duration of physical activity measured using accelerometers is more relevant for longevity. Specifically, we looked at all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. We found that the intensity of physical activity may be more important than the volume or duration for longevity. Including activities of higher intensity into daily routine may optimise health. We also investigated whether it matters if the most active minutes are spread throughout the day or performed in a single, continuous session. We found that accumulating intense activity in bouts was linked to better health outcomes than performing the same activity sporadically. What excited me about this work was that it shows how very simple choices in daily life, such as taking a purposeful 5-minute brisk walk after lunch or during a commute, rather than just moving a little bit here and there, may make a difference for long-term health. Based on these findings, turning such activities into regular habits might be a valuable way to support health over time, even though we did not study habit formation directly.

Fabian Schwendinger, Denis Infanger, Eric Lichtenstein, Timo Hinrichs, Raphael Knaier, Alex V Rowlands, Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss, Intensity or volume: the role of physical activity in longevity, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Volume 32, Issue 1, January 2025, Pages 10–19, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwae295

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

I tell them that I’m a researcher who uses data from activity trackers to understand how signals from everyday life can be used to support healthier ageing and to identify opportunities to prevent heart disease earlier and more effectively.

Given unlimited funding, what would your dream research project be?

If I had unlimited funding, I’d love to lead a research project that combines established and upcoming wearable sensors to identify individuals at risk of cardiovascular disease and combine this with a targeted, individualised intervention to deliver the right behavioural or clinical support at the right time, when risk is rising, capacity is changing, or intervention is most likely to be effective.

What is your #1 piece of advice for emerging early career researchers? (And why do you say that?)

There are two pieces of advice, I think are important, but early career researchers often tend to forget.

1) Take regular breaks, not just when you feel exhausted. Stepping away now and then helps you stay clear-headed, motivated, and effective over the long term.

2) Allocate more energy to activities that move you closer to your sense of purpose and long-term direction and, if possible, be selective about commitments that absorb time without meaningfully contributing to your growth or goals.

Interested in connecting with Fabian or checking out his recent work?

Linkedin

Google Scholar

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

When I explain my research to friends and family, I usually say that I study how different physical activity–related behaviors affect teenagers’ brains and school performance. In simple terms, I try to understand which types of movement, habits, and physical characteristics are most strongly linked to better cognitive functioning and academic achievement during adolescence.

What inspired you to pursue a career in research? What drives you to continue in this path?

I was inspired by a professor during my Sport Science degree who sparked my interest in science. After collaborating on various projects, I secured a PhD grant, which allowed me to turn that interest into a career. Today, what drives me is the chance to use research to improve the quality of life and well-being of young people.

What is a project you’re working on right now that you’re excited about?

The project I’m most excited about is my PhD thesis. My ultimate goal is for this research to go beyond the academic world and actually influence educational policies in my country. I want to provide the evidence needed to show how specific physical activity patterns can be a key tool for improving students’ cognitive and academic success at a national level.

What is a paper you recently published? What excited you about the question you answered?

I recently published a paper “Fitness, weight status, and executive functions in adolescents: A Cluster Analysis”. What excited me most was discovering how these factors interact to support the brain. Specifically, we found that having high fitness levels can actually mitigate the negative effects of a deficiency in another area, like weight status. It shows that there are multiple ways we can intervene to help a teenager’s cognitive health.

What is the most important advice you received as an early career researcher? (And why do you say that?)

The most important advice I received was to be prepared for a long and constantly changing process, but above all, to enjoy the journey. I value this because it has helped me stay resilient and focus on finding fulfillment in the research process itself from the very beginning, rather than just waiting for the final results.

Learn more about Fátima: https://produccioncientifica.uca.es/investigadores/167401/detalle

What inspired you to pursue a career in research? What drives you to continue in this path?

I was inspired, above all, by curiosity and a constant restlessness to understand how things work and how they can be improved. This was soon joined by my desire to contribute to society in my own small way. Research offers me a solid path to demonstrate the importance of physical activity and its role in the holistic development and well-being of individuals. I believe that contributing to science is a way of helping the world, and together with my constant drive for self-improvement and learning, these are my main sources of motivation.

How do you envision your research impacting public health policies or practices? (What recommendations do you have for others hoping to translate their research into policy or practice?)

I envision my research reinforcing the role of physical activity as a key element in educational and public health policies, providing evidence to support early and sustained school-based interventions. I hope these findings help design more effective programmes and embed physical activity as a core part of the Spanish education system. For those seeking to translate research into policy or practice, I recommend clear communication with relevant stakeholders, generating context-relevant evidence, and building strong connections between research and decision-makers.

What is your #1 piece of advice for emerging early career researchers? (And why do you say that?)

My main advice for early-career researchers is to enjoy what you do, avoid overextending yourself, and surround yourself with positive and supportive people. Research is a demanding long-term endeavour, full of ups and downs, frustrations, and moments when you might question whether to continue. Yet, it is also a deeply rewarding journey, offering incredible opportunities and the chance to contribute meaningfully to the world with solid evidence.

Interested in connecting with Franscisco? Connect with him here: ORCID, ResearchGate, X.

Transitioning from trainee to independent investigator has been one of the most exciting stages of my academic journey. I completed my PhD in 2023, where I had the opportunity to design and lead a randomized controlled trial as my dissertation project. This experience was transformative. It required me to manage a research team, coordinate with community partners, and make independent decisions, skills that most PhD students don’t get to develop so early. I was able to do this because my mentors encouraged my independence and trusted me to take ownership of my ideas. That trust shaped my confidence and gave me an early glimpse into what it means to be a principal investigator.

Those early experiences opened doors for my postdoctoral position, which I began immediately after graduation in August 2023. My postdoctoral mentor was an expert in physical activity research with 4 active NIH R01s. During my postdoc, I managed two of my mentor’s R01 projects focused on preventing accelerated summer weight gain among children, while developing my own NIH K99/R00 proposal that extended my mentor’s work to adolescent populations.

The most impactful part of my postdoctoral training was the mentorship I received in grant writing. My mentor shared examples of his own successful NIH grants and offered insight from his experience. He also supported my participation in grant-writing training and workshops, which deepened my understanding of the grant process and helped me expand my professional network. Through these experiences, I strengthened my ability to lead NIH-funded trials and gained a comprehensive view of project management, from conceptualization to implementation. This training has proven invaluable in my current faculty role.

My transition to a faculty position happened unexpectedly but organically. The department where I completed my doctoral studies reached out with a job offer. I stayed in touch with my former mentors and continued collaborating and publishing with them after graduation. Returning to the University of Houston as a Research Assistant Professor in 2024 felt like coming home, but with a new sense of independence and purpose.

During this transition, the research line I developed during my postdoctoral training proved invaluable. I quickly reformatted my K99/R00 proposal into an NIH R21 application and submitted a smaller version to a seed grant program at my institution. In my first year as a faculty member, I secured internal funding that provided critical support to generate proof-of-concept data and refine my ideas. Having a well-developed grant concept ready to go made this transition much smoother and gave me the time and flexibility to begin shaping a new line of research.

If I could offer a few key takeaways for early-career researchers, they would be:

• Find mentors who invest in both your science and your personal growth: The best mentors guide you through research challenges but also model how to build a respectful, collaborative, and fulfilling academic life.
• Take initiative and be open to independence early: When opportunities arise, such as leading a project or writing a grant, say yes, even if it feels intimidating. These trainings accelerate your growth and prepare you for leadership.
• Nurture your professional network with intention: Staying connected with mentors, collaborators, and peers can open unexpected doors for future research and career opportunities

Interested in connecting with Dr. Cepni? You can learn more about their role and find their contact information here: https://www.uh.edu/class/hhp/people/?id=140

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

I evaluate and design food policies that aim to make it easier for communities to make healthy and environmentally friendly choices.

What is a paper you recently published? What excited you about the question you answered?

I recently published, “Impacts of a Healthy Checkout Ordinance on Added Sugars, Sodium, and Other Nutrients at Checkout 1 Year After Implementation: Berkeley, California, 2021-2022,” in the American Journal of Public Health. This paper evaluates the Berkeley, California Healthy Checkout Ordinance, the first policy in the world to set nutrition standards for the foods and beverages displayed at retail checkout areas. In this paper, I found that 1 year after policy implementation, there was significantly less added sugar, saturated fat, and calories, and significantly more fiber per serving of food and beverage available at checkout. These findings provide evidence that healthy checkout policies are a viable option for improving the healthfulness of food environments and were used to inform the passage of an additional healthy checkout policy in Contra Costa County, California in 2025

How do you envision your research impacting public health policies or practices? (What recommendations do you have for others hoping to translate their research into policy or practice?)

Given that my research is focused on evaluating and designing food policies, a major goal of my work is to translate research findings into real-world policy and practice. In my experience, 1) Building relationships with policymakers, practitioners, nonprofit organizations, and other researchers can help facilitate translational efforts; 2) Engaging stakeholders early helps ensure that research addresses real policy needs; 3) Prioritizing concise, plain-language summaries that highlight policy implications can be applied quickly when policy windows open; and 4) Leveraging existing networks, such as university platforms and professional organizations, can magnify the audience you’re able to reach.

Interested in learning more about Dr. Reimold’s work? Check out her Google Scholar page.