Rachel Tabak, PhD
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis
Q: Tell us about yourself and your background.
I have my background training in nutrition intervention and policy and epidemiology from the Gilling’s School of Global Public Health at UNC. I came to Washington University at the end of my PhD to start post doc and to learn about D&I. I have been here for 13 years now. I wanted to bring implementation science together with healthy eating and physical activity research. A lot of times it felt in healthy eating and activity intervention work that you would get to the end of a trial, and it would be over. That didn’t seem like the kind of impact that I would want to have with my research.
Q: What is the most compelling information that you’ve found in your research to date?
It’s been interesting to hear from practitioner partners that we work with. How they think about the work that we do, healthy eating and physical activity, and using that kind of information with the families that they work with.
Q: Tell us about what you wish your research could solve right now/a burning question that your research could answer in the future?
How can we help families have the opportunity to be healthy, and how can we do that in a way that honors where they are?
Q: How did the CDTR help with your research and what services did you use?
I was awarded a $5,000 pilot grant. Having the experience of research funding, being part of the executive team, listening to core and co- directors, and seeing how a network runs has been very beneficial. I also learned a lot from helping others go through the process of writing pilots, papers and grants and those experiences were valuable.
More Information
Interested in connecting with Dr. Tabak?
Reach out to our team at cdtr@wustl.edu