Faculty Directory

Cara Eckhardt¹

Professor, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Success Community Health & Health Promotion

Biography

Cara L. Eckhardt is currently serving as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Success at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. She has been faculty at Portland State University since 2009 and has been a part of the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health since it’s inception. Eckhardt has taught at both the Undergraduate and Doctoral levels and was the Program Director for the PhD Program in Community Health for 8 years. and the Community Health PhD program director.

Eckhardt’s research focus is the prevention of childhood obesity. Her research has included projects investigating the impact of maternal nutrition during pregnancy on childhood obesity risk, elucidating how maternal nutrition during pregnancy might affect infant growth patterns and subsequent obesity risk, linking infant feeding practices to infant growth patterns, improving early screening methods for identifying children at risk for obesity, and evaluating interventions to improve the diets of young children. After earning her doctorate degree in Nutrition Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and prior to joining Portland State University, Eckhardt was a post-doctoral fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.

Education, Degrees

B.A., Cornell University, 1995
M.P.H., Emory University 1999
Ph.D., University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, 2004

Awards and Honors

2026, OHSU-PSU SPH Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentorship
2016, Nick Norgan Award for Annals of Human Biology manuscript, Maternal vitamin D status and infant anthropometry in a US multi-centre cohort study, Eckhardt CL, Gernand AD, Roth DE, Bodnar LM, The Annals of Human Biology, 2015;42(3):215-22.
2011-2016, Outstanding Teacher of the Year nominee, PSU, for five years running
2003-2004, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dissertation Completion Fellowship
2002, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute of Nutrition Fellowship
2001, American Society of Nutritional Sciences NABISCO Predoctoral Fellowship Award

Research

R03 HD07584101A1 (ECKHARDT CL), NIH/NICHD, 2014-20106. Defining Infant Rapid Weight Gain to Best Predict Childhood Obesity. Role: Principal Investigator
R01 NR014245 (BODNAR LM, HUTCHEON J), NIH/NINR, 2013-2017. Informing Evidence-based Maternal Weight Gain Guidelines for Twin Pregnancies. Role: Co-Investigator
Meyer Memorial Trust Grant (IZUMI B), Meyer Memorial Trust, 2009-2015. Oregon farm-to-childcare for infants and toddlers. Role: Co-Investigator
Kaiser Permanente Healthy Food Access Grant (IZUMI B), Kaiser Permanente, 2012-2013. Farm-to-Head Start: Increasing Children’s Access to Regionally Grown Fruits & Vegetables. Role: Co-Investigator
R01 HD058061(STEVENS VJ), NIH/NICHD, 2010-2012. Weight Management for Improved Pregnancy Outcomes. Role: Funded via Administrative Supplement Grant under PA-08-191 for supplementary project: The Impact of Limiting Pregnancy Weight Gain Among Obese Mothers

¹ CEPH Primary Instructional Faculty
² CEPH Non-Primary Instructional Faculty

Experienced Faculty With Diverse Backgrounds

More than 150 faculty members work within the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. They have a wide range of expertise, from monitoring and assessing health risks and opportunities in populations, to helping build health-supporting social environments through policy, advocacy, and programs. They are educators, advisors, researchers, practitioners and community leaders. They come from backgrounds in quantitative, behavioral, environmental and social sciences, policy and government, exercise and health sciences and anthropology, among many other areas. They all work in collaboration with each other and with community partners, and are especially focused on the training and education of future leaders and practitioners in the public health fields.

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