In the PRESENCE (Prevention and Resilience through Engagement with Supportive Environments, Nutrition and Culinary Education) Lab, my research develops and tests integrative, food-as-medicine interventions to improve cancer prevention and survivorship outcomes for patients and their families. I lead community-engaged, culturally responsive studies that examine how culinary medicine, medically tailored meals, caregiver support and mind–body practices can improve dietary quality, treatment tolerance and psychosocial well-being in diverse cancer populations. A central focus of my work is the health of family caregivers, whose own nutrition and self-care are often disrupted by the demands of caregiving. Using mixed methods and community-based participatory approaches, my team designs practical, skills-based interventions that simultaneously strengthen caregiver well-being and patient support.

In parallel, my research investigates how interactions with natural and community environments influence eating behaviors and health. This work identifies environmental and psychosocial pathways linking nature exposure, dietary quality, and sustainable eating and informs place-based and community-driven strategies to promote long-term health.

I currently serve as principal investigator (PI) or multi-PI on several community and foundation-funded trials of culinary medicine and food-as-medicine interventions in oncology, and as co-investigator on NIH-funded studies targeting dietary and weight-related behavior change for chronic disease prevention and management. These include trials to improve adherence to cancer prevention dietary guidelines as well as large-scale studies of digital self-monitoring, patient navigation and behavioral weight loss. Together, this portfolio spans cancer and non-cancer populations and seeks to translate nutrition and lifestyle science into scalable, real-world interventions.

Principal Investigator

Brandy-Joe Milliron, PhD
Associate Professor - Health Sciences

Health Sciences Building, 11th Floor, Room 11W34
60 N 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Phone: 267.359.5835
Email: bm645@drexel.edu

Publications

Research Gate | PubMed | Esploro

Caregiver’s Kitchen: Integrating Culinary Medicine into Pediatric Oncology Care

Caregiver’s Kitchen is a 12-week, remotely delivered culinary medicine intervention designed to support children undergoing treatment for leukemia or lymphoma and the family caregivers who nourish them. Treatment-related side effects can disrupt appetite, metabolism and eating routines, increasing risk for both undernutrition and obesity during and after treatment. This randomized pilot trial empowers caregivers with practical skills to prepare nutrient-dense, child-friendly meals that address common treatment challenges while supporting healthy weight trajectories. Families participate in six interactive virtual cooking modules paired with individualized caregiver coaching. The study evaluates feasibility and acceptability while exploring preliminary effects on child dietary intake, body composition and treatment tolerance, as well as caregiver burden and distress.

From Kitchen to Clinic: Medically Tailored Meals and Caregiver Coaching in Pediatric Cancer Care

This study tests a family-centered, food-as-medicine model that combines medically tailored meal (MTM) delivery with caregiver coaching for families of children in active cancer treatment. In partnership with community and clinical organizations, families receive weekly home-delivered, treatment-appropriate meals for both the child and family, alongside structured coaching to reduce caregiver burden and support sustainable eating routines. Over 12 weeks, the study assesses feasibility, adherence and acceptability and explores effects on dietary intake, growth and weight outcomes, treatment tolerance, household nutrition security and caregiver well-being. By integrating clinical oncology care with community food infrastructure, this project advances scalable strategies to address nutrition insecurity and improve survivorship outcomes during the most intensive phase of treatment.

Chinese Wellness Culinary Circle: A Mind-Body-Culinary Medicine Program for Cancer Survivors and Caregivers

The Chinese Wellness Culinary Circle (CWCC) is a culturally tailored, 12-week program for Chinese American cancer survivors and their caregivers that integrates traditional food practices, hands-on cooking and mindfulness. This feasibility study evaluates recruitment, retention and engagement, while exploring changes in adherence to cancer prevention dietary guidelines, mindfulness and mindful eating. The project addresses language, cultural and access barriers that often limit participation in standard survivorship programs and serves as a model for equitable, culturally responsive integrative oncology care.

Project SALUD: Community-Engaged Cancer Prevention with Hispanic Adults in North Philadelphia

Project SALUD (Supporting Access, Literacy and Understanding for Disease & Cancer Prevention) is a community-based mixed methods study conducted with a local nonprofit serving Hispanic residents of North Philadelphia. The project begins with a bilingual survey assessing cancer prevention beliefs, adherence to evidence-based lifestyle recommendations and perceived structural and cultural barriers to healthy behaviors. Findings then guide a participatory PhotoVoice project in which community members use photography and narrative to document how everyday environments shape cancer prevention opportunities. This work centers lived experience and local knowledge to reduce cancer disparities through tailored, community-informed action.

Nature Rx - Leveraging Interactions with Nature to Improve Dietary Quality and Health

Nature Rx is a program of mixed methods research examining how everyday interactions with natural environments shape eating behaviors and overall well-being. This work began with observational studies demonstrating that stronger connection to nature is associated with greater dietary diversity and higher fruit and vegetable intake. Building on these findings, current studies quantify how different types of nature exposure (incidental, indirect and intentional) relate to dietary quality and explore the social and cultural factors that enable or constrain nature engagement.

Using sequential explanatory mixed methods designs, this portfolio integrates large-scale survey and dietary data with in-depth qualitative interviews to uncover the pathways linking nature, motivation, access, routines and food choice. Findings to date suggest that nearby and everyday nature (e.g., views from home, neighborhood greenery) may be especially influential, pointing to scalable, place-based opportunities for intervention.

Ongoing work translates these insights toward intervention development, with the long-term goal of testing nature-based strategies (e.g., green space engagement, garden and park prescriptions, nature-integrated community programming) as complements to integrative nutrition interventions to enhance supportive care in oncology. Together, the Nature Rx portfolio advances an evidence base for using natural environments as practical tools to support healthier and more sustainable eating patterns.

Developing an Eco-Biopsychosocial Framework for Food, Nutrition, and Health

This ongoing program of scholarship advances an Eco-Biopsychosocial (EBPS) framework that expands traditional biopsychosocial models by explicitly incorporating ecological and food system contexts. Using iterative literature review and qualitative interviews with leaders across healthcare, community food organizations and education, the project identifies strengths and blind spots in existing models. Early findings highlight the need to foreground structural inequities, food and land systems, cultural and historical foodways, human-nature relationships and agency in shaping health behaviors. The EBPS framework is being progressively refined to guide research, teaching and intervention design that more accurately reflects how biological, psychological, social and ecological forces jointly influence nutrition and health.

Alumni

• Dahlia Stott, PhD
• Cynthia Klobodu, PhD
• Dan Dychtwald, PhD, MPH

Internal Collaborators

• Jonathan Deutsch, PhD, Department of Food and Hospitality Management and Drexel Food Lab
• Ann C. Klassen, PhD, Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health
• Meghan Butryn, PhD, Psychological and Brain Sciences and the WELL Center, College of Arts and Sciences
• Meera Harhay, MD, College of Medicine

External Collaborators

• Tracey Jubelier, MD, Hematology and Oncology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Munjireen Sifat, OhD, MPH, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Marc Zegans, Founding Principal, Creative Development
• Mara Vitolins, DrPH, RD, Epidemiology and Prevention, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
• Lora Packel, PhD, PT, Physical Therapy, St Joseph’s University