Eliminating Food Deserts
Can building a grocery store in a "food desert" change food purchasing and reduce health disparities in the U.S.? Tamara Dubowitz introduces an innovative new RAND project that may provide answers.
Tamara Dubowitz
Senior Policy Researcher; Faculty, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Expertise
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Tamara Dubowitz (she/her) is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and faculty at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Trained in social epidemiology with concentrations in maternal and child health and public health nutrition, her research focuses on the role of place, or geography, and health of marginalized populations. Her interests also lie in understanding the health and nutrition effects of policy (e.g., housing policy, food policy, urban planning), including topical areas such as food security. Dubowitz's work has utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine individuals within their social and structural contexts.
In addition to spending more than two years working on women's health programs and development with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, West Africa, Dubowitz has experience with monitoring and evaluation of programs domestically and internationally. Her more recent research has looked at neighborhood investments and assets, from new full-service supermarkets in food deserts to greenspace and parks, housing and the streetscape and its impact on resident health. Dubowitz received her Sc.D. in public health nutrition/social epidemiology and S.M. in maternal and child health from the Harvard School of Public Health and her M.Sc. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Education
Sc.D. in public health nutrition/social epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; S.M. in maternal and child health, Harvard School of Public Health; M.Sc. in anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Selected Work
- Finucane ML, Beckman R, Ghosh-Dastidar M, Dubowitz T, Collins RL, Troxel W., "Do social isolation and neighborhood walkability influence relationships between COVID-19 experiences and wellbeing in predominantly Black urban areas? ," Landscape and Urban Planning, 2022
- Siddiqi SM, Cantor J, Dastidar MG, Beckman R, Richardson AS, Baird MD, Dubowitz T., "SNAP Participants and High Levels of Food Insecurity in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Public Health Reports, (4), 2021
- Andrea S Richardson, Wendy M Troxel, Madhumita Ghosh-Dastidar, Gerald P Hunter, Robin Beckman, Rebecca Collins, Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Alvin Nugroho, Lauren Hale, Daniel J Buysse, Matthew P Buman, Tamara Dubowitz, "Violent crime, police presence and poor sleep in two low-income urban predominantly Black American neighbourhoods ," J Epidemiol Community Health, (JECH-2020-), 2020
- Richardson AS, Ghosh-Dastidar M, Beckman R, Flórez KR, DeSantis A, Collins RL, Dubowitz T., "Can the introduction of a full-service supermarket in a food desert improve residents' economic status and health?" Annals of Epidemiology, 27(12), 2017
- Dubowitz T, Orleans T, Nelson C, May LW, Sloan JC, Chandra A., "Creating Healthier, More Equitable Communities By Improving Governance And Policy," Health Affairs, 35(11), 2016
- Dubowitz T, Ghosh-Dastidar B, Cohen D, Beckman R, Steiner E, Hunter G, Cummins S, Florez K, Huang, C, Zenk S, Sloan J, Collins RL., "Residents’ Diet and Perceptions Changed After A New Supermarket Came To A Food Desert, But Not Because Of Supermarket Use," Health Affairs, 34(11), 2015
- Dubowitz T, Ghosh Dastidar M, Richardson AS, Colabianchi N, Beckman R, Hunter GP, Sloan JC, Nugroho AK, Collins RL, "Results from a natural experiment: initial neighbourhood investments do not change objectively-assessed physical activity, psychological distress or perceptions of the neighbourhood," Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 16(1), 2019
- Jonathan Cantor, Robin Beckman, Rebecca L Collins, Madhumita Ghosh Dastidar, Andrea S Richardson, Tamara Dubowitz, "SNAP Participants Improved Food Security And Diet After A Full-Service Supermarket Opened In An Urban Food Desert," Health Affairs, 39(8), 2020
Authored by Tamara Dubowitz
113 Results
