Eleanor Shonkoff

Eleanor Shonkoff is an Associate Clinical Professor in Nutrition and Public Health at Merrimack College’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Her work focuses on child obesity prevention, particularly in underserved populations facing food insecurity. She holds expertise in mixed-methods research, community-based interventions, and the intersection of parent stress, feeding practices, and child dietary intake. Her research has contributed to validated dietary assessment tools using digital images and AI.

• Education: Ph.D. in Preventive Medicine (USC), M.A. in Social Psychology (Wake Forest), B.A. in Philosophy and Cognitive Science (UGA)

Her research interests include:

• Parental stress and feeding practices
• Community-based intervention design
• Health communication strategies
• Health disparities in nutrition

Recent publications highlight innovations in dietary assessment technology and evaluation of social marketing campaigns to improve child nutrition. She has received NIH sub-awards for studies on parental stress and food insecurity, as well as awards for teaching innovation.

Grants and collaborations include the Tufts Innovates Seed Grant on technology-driven public health solutions and co-founding the Food Justice Research and Action Cluster. She teaches graduate courses in public health, community nutrition research, and advanced practice nutrition.