Sara Benjamin Neelon

Sara Benjamin-Neelon is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a primary appointment in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and a joint affiliation with the Department of International Health. She is also the Director of the Lerner Center. Holding a PhD, JD, and MPH, her interdisciplinary expertise spans child nutrition, public health law, and chronic disease prevention.

Educational Background:

• JD, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, 2017
• PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006
• MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002
• BS, Ithaca College, 1995

Dr. Benjamin-Neelon’s research centers on early life predictors of obesity and chronic diseases, with a strong emphasis on health equity. Her work explores community-based interventions for children and families, food insecurity, policy evaluation (especially in nutrition and physical activity), epigenetic and environmental influences on child growth, and the social determinants of early life feeding, physical activity, sleep, and stress. She examines both domestic and global contexts, contributing significantly to understanding how policy changes can create healthier environments.

Her extensive publication record includes over 196 research outputs, with recent articles focusing on childcare environments, breastfeeding policies, cannabis use during pregnancy, university beverage contracts, and infant feeding regulations. The trends in her recent work highlight a strong focus on policy analysis, health equity, and the evaluation of natural experiments in public health. She frequently investigates how structural and environmental factors shape child health outcomes.

She has not received any explicitly mentioned scientific awards in the provided text.

Dr. Benjamin-Neelon advises students and leads significant research projects, including evaluations of state nutrition and physical activity policies, the impact of childcare on obesity risk, and initiatives to improve healthy feeding in early childhood. Her work often involves collaboration with interdisciplinary teams and has significant implications for public health grants and policy development.

She leads or contributes to key research initiatives such as the evaluation of South Carolina’s nutrition and physical activity policies, studies on licensing laws for infant and toddler care, and the Maryland Collaborative to reduce excessive college drinking. Her research environment is collaborative, involving multiple institutions and public health agencies.