Deanna Hoelscher

John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences

Deanna M. Hoelscher, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., C.N.S. is the John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus.

Deanna's research interests include child and adolescent nutrition, school-based health promotion programs, dietary and physical activity assessment methodology, evaluation of child obesity policies, and dissemination of school health programs. She has been the principal investigator on many research projects with child and adolescent populations, most notably the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) and the Travis County CATCH project, studies to decrease cardiovascular risk factors in children and childhood obesity; the School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) study, a child and adolescent overweight prevalence study in Texas; and Lunch is in the Bag, a NIH-funded parent program that addresses lunch-packing behaviors. She is also principal investigator of the Texas Child Obesity Research Demonstration grant to develop, implement and evaluate an integrated, systems-oriented approach to obesity prevention and weight management for underserved, ethnically diverse children ages 2 to 12.

Deanna received her B.S. in food science and technology from Texas A&M University and her M.A. in nutrition and Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a registered dietitian and loves to cook.

Deanna is Past-President of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. She has been Chair of the Texas Council on Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, Chair of the Research Dietary Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association, and the Public Health Nutrition Division chair of the Society for Nutrition Education. Deanna also served on an Institute of Medicine committee on Evaluating Progress of Obesity Prevention Efforts.