Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, RN, MS, MA

Debra Haire-Joshu is an internationally renowned scholar of health behavior who develops population-wide interventions to reduce obesity and prevent diabetes, particularly among underserved women and children. Her areas of interest include the intergenerational aspects of obesity prevention, policy initiatives to prevent obesity and diabetes prevention, particularly in early childhood and school settings.

Haire-Joshu holds a joint appointment in the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and directs both the Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research (COPPR) and the Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research (WU-CDTR). COPPR aims to discover and integrate new science into policies designed to prevent obesity. The WU-CDTR, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is working to eliminate the root causes of obesity and disparities in Type 2 diabetes within diverse populations, and serves as a resource to academic and national organizations to support underrepresented groups and disciplines conducting translation research.