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Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH

Mariana Chilton

Professor
Health Management and Policy
mmc33@drexel.edu
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Degrees

PhD, Folklore & Folklife, University of Pennsylvania
MPH, Epidemiology, University of Oklahoma
MA, Folklore & Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania
AB, History and Literature: Latin America, Harvard University

Bio

Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, is a Professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. She founded and directed (2004-2024) Dornsife's Center for Hunger-Free Communities, a community-engaged research and advocacy center focused on developing solutions to hunger and economic insecurity.

Dr. Chilton also founded Witnesses to Hunger, a movement to increase women's participation in the national dialogue on hunger and poverty. She is principal investigator of the Building Wealth and Heath Network, which is designed to incentivize entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and a former principal investigator of Children's HealthWatch, a national research network that investigates the impact of public assistance programs on the health and well-being of young children and their caregivers.

Her research publications address trauma, food insecurity and the advancement of the human rights framework to advise the right to food in the US.

She has served as the co-chair of the bi-partisan National Commission on Hunger, where she was appointed to advise Congress and the United States Department of Agriculture on how to end hunger in America.

She has testified before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on the importance of child nutrition programs and other anti-poverty policies. She has served as an advisor to Sesame Street and to the Institute of Medicine. Her awards include the “Nourish Award” from MANNA, the “Unsung Hero Award” for Improving the Lives of Women and Girls from Women’s Way and the Young Professional Award in Maternal and Child Health from the American Public Health Association.

Her work has been featured in the documentary A Place at the Table, and in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, public radio, CBS National News, among many others.

Dr. Chilton is author of the book, The Painful Truth About Hunger in America (MIT Press), which was released in October 2024.

Research Interests

  • Nutrition
  • Community Engaged Research
  • Health Disparities
  • Health Policy
  • Maternal and Child Health
  • Mental health and Behavioral health
  • Urban Health
  • Violence and Trauma
  • Human Rights
  • Food Insecurity

Publications

§ = Senior/mentoring author

* = Indicates students from the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University

Weida, E.*, Lê-Scherban F., Carroll-Scott, A, Bloom, S., Chilton, MM. § Trauma-informed Financial Empowerment Programming Associated with Improved Financial Well-being. Journal of Child and Family Studies. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02927-7

Correa-Salazar C,* Marín-Carvajal I, García MA, Fox K,* Chilton MM. Earth Rights for the Advancement of a Planetary Health Agenda. Health Education & Behavior. 2024;51(6):787-795. https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981241232642

Lê-Scherban F, Wang A, Courts KA, Ettinger de Cuba S, Wade R Jr, Chilton MM. A Short Adverse Experiences Measure Among Mothers of Young Children. Pediatrics. 2024 Apr 1;153(4):e2023063882. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38449423/

Chilton, MM. Sacred Nutrition: Asserting Indigenous Sovereignty and Rights of Women and Nature to Ensure the Right to Food in the United States, University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review, 2024, Vol. 21 (1), pp 49-75. https://repository.law.miami.edu/umiclr/vol31/iss1/6/

Gallegos D, Booth S, Pollard CM, Chilton M, Kleve S. Food security definition, measures and advocacy priorities in high-income countries: a Delphi consensus study. Public Health Nutr. 2023 Oct;26(10):1986-1996. doi: 10.1017/S1368980023000915. Epub 2023 May 5. PMID: 37144401; PMCID: PMC10564592.

Weida E,* Egan V*, Chilton MM. How trauma-informed programming to treat social determinants unveils challenges to systems alignment. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. May 2021; 32(2):654-663.

Joseph SR,* Voyles C,* Williams KD,* Smith E,* Chilton MM. Colonial Neglect and the Right to Health in Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(10):1512-8.

Dugan J, Booshehri LG, Phojanakong P,* Weida E,* Bloom S, Chilton MM.§  Effects of a trauma-informed curriculum on depression, self-efficacy, economic security, and substance use among TANF participants: Evidence from the Building Health and Wealth Network Phase II. Soc Sci Med. 2020;258:113136.

Weida EB*, Phojanakong P,* Patel F,* Chilton, MM.§  Financial Health As A Measurable Social Determinant Of Health. PLOS One, May 2020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233359

Phojanakong P,* Welles S, Dugan J, Booshehri L, Brown Weida E,* Chilton MM.§  Trauma-Informed Financial Empowerment Programming Improves Food Security Among Families With Young Children. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2020;52(5):465-473.

Chilton MM, Jones S. The Rights of Nature and the Future of Public Health. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(4):459-460.

Phojanakong P,* Brown Weida E,* Grimaldi G,*, Lê-Scherban F, Chilton MM.§  Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Are Associated with Food Insecurity and Poor Health. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(22), https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16224369

Gaines-Tuner,* Simmons J,* Chilton MM.§ The public health imperative to improve wages and end stigma: Recommendations from SNAP Participants. American Journal of Public Health, November, 2019.

See Dr. Chilton's complete list of publications on PubMed