Elizabeth L. Fox

Elizabeth L. Fox serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Cornell University with dual appointments in the Department of Public & Ecosystem Health (College of Veterinary Medicine) and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program. Her interdisciplinary work bridges nutrition science, food systems analysis, and ethics, focusing on how food systems interact with individual lived experiences and the complex tradeoffs in nutrition decisions across diverse socioeconomic contexts.

Her educational background includes a PhD in International Nutrition (2016) and BS in Nutritional Sciences (2009) from Cornell University, with minors in Epidemiology, Social Policy, and Global Health, plus a Dietetic Internship from Iowa State University (2019). Prior to her faculty position, she was a Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berman Institute of Bioethics’ Global Food Ethics and Policy Program.

Dr. Fox’s research employs focused ethnographic methods to study nutrition decision-making in low-, middle-, and high-income countries, with fieldwork in Haiti, Kenya, and the US. Key themes include culturally appropriate nutrition interventions, sustainable diets, food environments in informal settlements, and ethical frameworks for identifying marginalized populations. Her work spans child/adolescent nutrition, women’s health across the life course, and aquatic food systems.

Her publication portfolio features high-impact contributions including the EAT-Lancet Commission report in The Lancet (2019), UNICEF’s Food Systems for Children and Adolescents (2019), and over 20 peer-reviewed articles addressing food system inequality, sustainable consumption, and context-specific implementation science.

Scientific recognition includes:

• American Dissertation Fellowship (AAUW, 2015-16)
• Society for Applied Anthropology Student Poster Competition First Place (2016)
• Provost’s Diversity Fellowship at Cornell (2014)
• Sphinx Head Senior Honor Society (2008-09)

As a registered dietitian (RDN), she maintains active collaborations with UNICEF, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and the Society for Implementation Science in Nutrition. Her prior field experience includes pediatric nutrition work at GHESKIO clinics in Haiti and WIC program implementation in San Diego. Current projects focus on developing context-responsive tools for measuring food environments in LMICs and advancing ethical frameworks for food system transformations targeting vulnerable populations.