Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. She is the Director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and is Co-Principal investigator of Children's HealthWatch, and national research network that investigates the impact of public assistance programs on the health and wellbeing of young children and their caregivers. Dr. Chilton founded Witnesses to Hunger, a participatory action study 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. Most recently she 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 and CBS National News.
Dr. Chilton received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma, and Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University.
Chilton's expertise includes human rights and health, race, ethnicity and poverty, nutrition and chronic disease, hunger, women and children, complementary and alternative medicine and religion and medicine.
More information about Chilton
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