Gabriella Maria McLoughlin, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Temple University College of Public Health
Q: Tell us about yourself and your background?
A: I am a faculty with Temple University College of Public Health and my background is mostly in education settings. When I was in my doctorate, I got my teaching license to teach K-12 Physical Education. A lot of the work I do is around schools and school systems to hopefully address some of these disparities that we see in education but also in public health. Schools are opportune settings for reaching children and youth especially those that are at risk for childhood obesity, diabetes, etc.
Q: What is the most compelling information that you’ve found in your research to date?
A: Some of the most significant issues we found are implementation gaps between policies that are approved at federal and state levels and what’s happening on the ground. There are many equity gaps regarding implementation of policies that are designed to address health disparities. We have to start at some of those levels before we add more health promotion interventions or layers onto an already overloaded school system. Implementation science allows us to do practice-based research, as opposed to pushing evidence-based practice onto school systems. I believe we arrive at a more sustainable solution this way.
Q: Tell us about what you wish your research could solve right now/a burning question that your research could answer in the future?
A: How do we better integrate social safety net systems into public health interventions and ongoing programs and policies so we can better address social determinants of health while also improving the health of everyone? And how do we sustainably do that?
Q: What type of service would be most useful for your developing career?
A: More help and support on time management and balancing with the capacity and bandwidth that I currently have. Also, help with forecasting, budgeting, and career plan
More Information
Interested in connecting with Dr. McLoughlin?
Reach out to our team at cdtr@wustl.edu