Jessica Jones-Smith

Jessica Jones-Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health and the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health, holding a core faculty position in the Nutritional Sciences Program where she leads obesity, food, and physical activity research initiatives.

Her educational background includes:

• BS in Food and Nutrition Science from Loyola University (1999)
• RD from University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (2000)
• MPH in Public Health Nutrition from University of California, Berkeley (2007)
• PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2010)

Her research centers on how poverty and economic factors shape nutrition-related health inequities, demonstrating through natural experiments like Native American casino expansions that income boosts reduce childhood obesity. She challenges misconceptions about obesity as an individual failing, emphasizing environmental and systemic drivers like food pricing and accessibility. Current work examines Seattle's soda tax impacts and recession-related obesity trends.

She founded the Collaborative on Obesity Research and Action, uniting UW faculty with researchers from Seattle Children’s, Fred Hutch, VA, and Kaiser Permanente to address chronic disease root causes.

Her funded projects include the City of Seattle-sponsored soda tax evaluation, recession-obesity linkage analysis with Dr. Vanessa Oddo, and proposed social safety net expansion studies. She teaches Public Health Nutrition (NUTR 531), integrating systems thinking and policy evaluation through SNAP produce prescription program assessments.