Assistant Research Professor
The Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Jenny Barton is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at the Pennsylvania State University. She holds a PhD in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin with postdoctoral training in Family Resiliency and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds an MS and BS in Psychology from the University of North Florida. Broadly, as a developmental and family scientist, she is interested in understanding how the contexts that infants and preschoolers are embedded in can influence their nutrition, growth and health. Her current KL2-funded research centers on rural health disparities by measuring and examining variability in food insecurity and whether this variability affects maternal stress and feeding behaviors. She also collaborates on several behavioral interventions designed to improve the health and well-being of young children and their families among high-risk populations in rural communities.