
2020: Leslie Redmond, PhD, RDN
Dr. Leslie Redmond is the recipient the 2020 ANDF research award. Dr. Redmond and her staff will use the award to support a nutrition education program to increase the utilization of herbs and spices among food pantry clients with the overall goal of improving dietary quality and nutrition-related health outcomes. Dr. Redmond is an Assistant Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of Alaska Anchorage and currently serves as President of the Alaska Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. An early career researcher, Dr. Redmond applies her multidisciplinary training in human nutrition, exercise physiology, and public health towards her research, which focuses on improving nutrition and physical activity environments and decreasing food insecurity. This is accomplished through theory-based, culturally appropriate, and community-centered interventions that aim to prevent obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases in underserved populations. In Alaska, 1 in 7 adults struggles with hunger, and the Food Bank of Alaska distributes nearly 7 million pounds of food annually. Many Alaskans rely on food pantries to meet their household food requirements as opposed to only utilizing food pantries on an emergent basis as they are intended. This emphasizes the need to ensure that food pantry options are as healthy and nutritious as possible and that food pantry clients have the nutrition knowledge and cooking skills required to prepare healthy foods.