Hello.
Let us help you customize your experience.
Tell us a little about yourself so we can share more relevant content and resources.
The contributors for obesity prevention include a leadership team, external advisory committee, internal advisory committee, mentors and investigators. These groups work together to develop the research infrastructure for childhood obesity prevention.
The Leadership Team is comprised of the faculty and staff who manage the work of the three cores: the Administrative and Scientific Support Core, the Biostatistics and Informatics Core and the Metabolism Core.
The Leadership Team works together to provide services and support to junior faculty including but not limited to:
Medical Director, Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention
Section Chief, Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity
Associate Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
View Biosketch
Project: "Type 1 Diabetes Summer Camp Effects on Energy Expenditure and Blood Glucose Control"
Associate Director, Administrative and Scientific Core
Faith-Based Coordinator and Founding Chair of ArCOP
Arkansas Department of Health
Joy Rockenbach is the Associate Director for the Administrative Core for the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention and the Faith-based Coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Health, linking communities of faith to public health resources. ADH contributes as in-kind a portion of Ms. Rockenbach’s time to the development and work of the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention and the Administrative Core specifically in community engagement.
A graduate of the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in health education, Ms. Rockenbach has spent 27 years working in public health and chronic disease prevention. During that time, she has focused her work in the community on assessment, program planning and implementation. She has guided community coalition building efforts in tobacco, cancer control and obesity prevention encouraging policy, system and environmental change in all communities. For the last 13 years, Ms. Rockenbach has worked solely on community obesity prevention efforts. She joined the staff of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement to help develop the strategy for weighing and measuring all Arkansas students in accordance with legislative Act 1220 of 2003. In 2005, she moved that work to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in a joint agreement with the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). She is the founding Chair of the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention (ArCOP)
The External Advisory Committee (EAC) provides unbiased external oversight for the overall Center and the progress of the individual junior investigators. The EAC consists of four nationally recognized scientists with expertise in the causes and consequences of childhood obesity and its comorbidities, childhood obesity prevention intervention strategies, community-based research strategies, statistical consideration of longitudinal datasets, and the operational management of academic health centers. The EAC is responsible for critiquing the scientific progress of the Center, and providing advice and guidance to Dr. Weber and the core directors.
As part of this responsibility, the EAC meets twice per year and looks at the following:
Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor
Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Director, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
View Biosketch
Director of Community Interventions, Global Obesity Prevention Center & Center for Human Nutrition
Professor, Department of International Health,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
View Biosketch
The Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) includes senior level administrative and research faculty from ACRI and UAMS, all of whom have demonstrated excellence in their respective fields. The IAC provides internal institutional advice and guidance for Overall Center operations as well as the development and mentoring of the junior investigators by:
Center mentors include both internal and external senior level administrative and research faculty, all of whom have demonstrated excellence in their respective fields. The mentors provide project specific guidance on, the development and progress of the junior investigator research projects by:
Primary Project Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Nutrition
Division of Agriculture
University of Arkansas
View Biosketch
Project: "Breakfast, Energy Metabolism, and Skeletal Muscle Health in Children"
Primary Project Investigator
InstructorPrimary Project Investigator
Assistant ProfessorPilot Study Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Community Health and Research
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences-Northwest Arkansas Regional Campus
View Biosketch
Project: "Marshallese Beleifs, Perceptions, and Experiences of Infant Feeding"
Pilot Study Investigator
InstructorPilot Study Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Health, Human Performance, & Recreation
University of Arkansas
Project: "Activity Phenotypes in Pregnancy, Childhood and Associations with Child Obesity"
Pilot Study Investigator
Assistant ProfessorPilot Study Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
View Biosketch
Project: "FGF-21: An Adjunct Biomarker for Early Detection of NAFLD in Children"
Affiliated Project Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences – Northwest Arkansas Regional Campus
View Biosketch
Project: "Relating Families’ History of Food Pantry Use to Children’s Obesity Status"
Medical Director, Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention
Section Chief, Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity
Associate Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
View Biosketch
Project: "Type 1 Diabetes Summer Camp Effects on Energy Expenditure and Blood Glucose Control"
Support Care Investigator
Associate Professor