Alison Gustafson, MPH, PhD [Alumni]

Alison Gustafson was a Population Health Service Fellow at the Dane County Health Department from 2004 through 2006. She received her MPH from Boston University and has also earned a PhD in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Alison is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, where she conducts research on the food environment as a determinant of diet and weight among rural and geographically isolated communities. She is the Primary Investigator on one United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant and a Co-Investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant.

Alison’s experience as a Fellow helped her decide that she wanted to pursue a PhD with a strong research focus. Her words of wisdom to current and prospective Fellows are this: “Take advantage of all opportunities, no matter how small.”

Alison has a 4-year-old daughter (pictured below) and is pregnant with her second child. 

                                                                        Alison and her daughter at the Memorial Union