Tonja Renae Nansel, Ph.D.

Dr. Nansel’s program of research examines psychosocial, environmental, and neurobehavioral influences on dietary intake across critical developmental periods. She is the PI of the Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study (PEAS) and Sprouts follow-up study, which examine determinants of diet quality and weight change during pregnancy and postpartum, how these intersect with parent feeding practices during infancy and early childhood, and the development of psychosocial and neurobehavioral responses to food in early childhood

Poor diet quality is the leading contributor to global disease burden, and clinical and public health approaches to improve diet quality have been minimally successful, indicating the need to identify more effective modifiable targets. Pregnancy, postpartum, and early childhood are critical developmental periods during which dynamic changes in weight and diet occur. In pregnancy, poor maternal diet quality and excessive gestational weight gain are prevalent across racial/ethnic groups and income levels, and are modifiable risk factors for numerous adverse maternal and child health outcomes. In the offspring, poor diet quality begins early in childhood, affecting the development of lifelong eating behaviors and preferences, with multiple adverse health consequences.

The Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study (PEAS) is examines the roles of maternal reward-related eating, self-control, and the home food environment in maternal dietary intake and weight change as well as infant feeding and growth. The overarching goal is to identify neurobehavioral and environmental determinants of excessive gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention to inform best practices for supporting optimal diet quality and weight management during this critical developmental period, leading to improved maternal and child health trajectories. The primary aims of PEAS were to test relationships of maternal reward-related eating, self-control, and the home food environment with maternal diet and weight outcomes, and to test whether self-control or the home food environment modifies the relationship of reward-related eating with maternal diet and weight outcomes.

The SPROUTS study follows this cohort through early childhood, enabling the examination of the relative influences of neurobehavioral, behavioral, and environmental factors on child diet and weight outcomes. With this well-characterized cohort followed from early pregnancy through early primary school, we will investigate how prenatal and infant exposures influence the development of child reward-related eating behaviors, diet, and growth.

Dr. Nansel’s program of research has generated scientific contributions with direct application to important clinical and public health needs. Previously, she developed effective family-based behavioral interventions to promote healthful dietary intake and optimal diabetes management for youth with type 1 diabetes. While successful, this work demonstrated limitations of current theoretical approaches to behavior change. Her current work seeks to advance our understanding of determinants of eating behavior to inform the development of more effective population-based intervention approaches.

Tonja R. Nansel, Ph.D. is a senior investigator in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the Division of Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Nansel received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Fort Hays State University in 1988, and a doctoral degree in Community/Clinical Psychology from Wichita State University in 1998. She completed a predoctoral internship with Kansas State Extension Office of Community Health and a postdoctoral fellowship with NICHD Prevention Research Branch. Dr. Nansel has been an investigator in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch (previously the Prevention Research Branch and the Health Behavior Branch), since 2001.