麻豆原创

Giving Isobel Contento, the Mary Swartz Rose Professor of Nutrition & Education, credit for writing the book on 21st Century nutrition education isn鈥檛 hyperbole. It鈥檚 fact.

鈥溌槎乖�创 claims, rightfully, that it founded the first nutrition program and, with that, the field of nutrition education,鈥� says colleague, friend and collaborator Pamela Koch. 鈥淎nd Isobel has had a huge influence during her time at Teachers College as the field went through substantial change. She basically applied a psychology frame to understand why people eat what they eat while using communication and educational theories to develop effective lessons, interventions and programs to change behaviors.鈥�

麻豆原创 claims, rightfully, that it founded the first nutrition program and, with that, the field of nutrition education. And Isobel has had a huge influence during her time at Teachers College as the field went through substantial change.

鈥擯amela Koch, Executive Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy and Associate Research Professor

Koch, Executive Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, and Associate Research Professor, this spring joined fellow colleagues, friends, students and alumni to celebrate Contento鈥檚 life and career at a recent fittingly named conference, 鈥淣utrition Education in a Changing World,鈥� in advance of the Contento鈥檚 September retirement.

Koch will succeed Contento as the Rose professor this fall. The professorship honors Rose, a nutrition education pioneer credited with helping develop widely-accepted dietary standards and establishing the nation鈥檚 first nutrition education lab at 麻豆原创, where she taught from 1910鈥�1940. 

鈥淚sobel epitomizes Dr. Rose鈥檚 ideals by linking theory with research,鈥� program director Randi Wolf told attendees of a 2020 tribute to Contento. 鈥淭o me, Isobel has been a mentor. I鈥檝e learned so much about what it takes to be a good researcher, a good teacher, and what it means to deeply love your work and deeply love your students.鈥� 

To me, Isobel has been a mentor. I鈥檝e learned so much about what it takes to be a good researcher, a good teacher, and what it means to deeply love your work and deeply love your students.

鈥擱andi Wolf, Program Director and Associate Professor of Human Nutrition 

Born to missionaries, Contento grew up in China and was introduced to 鈥渇ood justice鈥� in India and other nations during family travels as a child.

Her interest in nutrition formed as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, and took shape during the pursuit of a Master鈥檚 and Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley.

But it was in her first posting, as a Faculty Fellow in nutrition and biology at California鈥檚 University of Redlands from 1969鈥�77, that created a clear path to what lay ahead.  

鈥淭here was a narrow view of nutrients and food when I got into nutrition,鈥� Contento recalled.

The times were however changing in the field of nutrition with the 1971 publication of Diet for a Small Planet, the Frances Moore Lapp茅 treatise linking eating habits to environmental sustainability. 

Across the country, the research of Joan Gussow 鈥� 麻豆原创鈥檚 first Rose Professor 鈥� was pointing in the same direction. 

Contento moved the needle forward after arriving at 麻豆原创 as an Associate Professor in 1977 with research that added a social psychology lens to nutrition.

鈥淧eople trained in nutrition assumed that information about food and diet would change behaviors,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut it became clear that with a changing food system that heavily promoted less than healthy but tasty foods, information was not going to be enough. No one seemed to know much about how to change those behaviors. The missing piece was between the knowledge and behavior. You have to not only be a nutritionist, but also a psychologist to understand motivations, an educator to design the lesson or program, and a communicator to deliver it 鈥� and that鈥檚 what makes nutrition education so difficult.鈥�

Connecting those dots ultimately led to the publication of Nutrition Education: Linking Research, Theory, and Practice (Jones & Bartlett Learning Books, 2007). 

鈥淚t really changed the field,鈥� said Koch. 鈥淚t really is the first textbook on nutrition and education.鈥�

Now in its fourth edition, the book is to modern nutrition education what Harry Potter is to young adult literature. For Contento, the book is a culmination of her own realizations within the field: 鈥淚 thought translating theory into practice was very complicated until I realized that nutrition education can be seen as a three-legged stool where we focus on why people change eating habits, facilite that behavioral change and provide environmental supports for changing behavior. It was then that I realized I could write a textbook on nutrition education when I put those three features together.鈥�

Contento鈥檚 tenure as the Rose Professor, a post she has held since 1999, may be drawing to an end. But she isn鈥檛 prepared to close the book. 

The fall semester will find Contento again doing what she loves: teaching a nutrition education class while serving as a part-time advisor on student Master鈥檚 projects. 

鈥淚鈥檓 not totally gone,鈥� she laughs. 鈥淚鈥檓 just not going 24/7 anymore.鈥�

鈥� Steve Giegerich

— Steve Giegerich