Katherine Bauer

Dr. Katherine Bauer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on public health education, particularly addressing health disparities through lactation education and equitable teaching strategies. She teaches maternal-child nutrition and professional development courses aimed at enhancing public health writing and teaching skills.

Her research interests span maternal-child nutrition, interprofessional education in public health, and the sociocultural factors influencing child feeding practices. She has conducted formative studies on grandparent caregivers, coparenting dynamics, and racial disparities in food parenting practices.

Key themes in her work include the lived experience of food assistance discrimination, executive functioning in diabetes management, and secular trends in sustainable diets. Her articles often bridge qualitative insights with quantitative analyses to address systemic inequities in nutrition and healthcare access.

Dr. Bauer has contributed to understanding the impact of the Flint Water Crisis on community health and explored vaccination behaviors among families during the pandemic. Her work emphasizes actionable strategies to improve child nutrition environments through policy and education initiatives.