Meet Our Team

Principal Investigator

Meg Bruening is the principal investigator of the Youth & Community Nutrition Impact Research Team and department head and professor of nutritional sciences. Her research focuses on nutrition equity for underserved, vulnerable youth and families, broadly Maternal Child Health (MCH) populations. 

Before becoming an academic, she practiced as a dietitian in Pennsylvania who coordinated nutrition education efforts across the Commonwealth for low-income families through the SNAP-Ed program and was a WIC dietitian in Philadelphia. After she earned her master of public health and doctorate at the University of Minnesota, she was faculty at Arizona State University, where she co-led the College of Health Solution’s translational research team (TRT) in MCH and served as the Director of Training Grants for the College of Health Solutions. In this role, she supported research and evaluation for underrepresented families to promote health equity, through community and state-level collaborations, building the team to over 250 members including academics from all major Arizona public institutions, community partners, and students.

Bruening's research program develops, implements, and evaluates behavioral interventions to improve eating behaviors and advance health equity for low-income, diverse communities with a focus on food insecurity and social/structural determinants of health. She has been funded by NIH, USDA, CDC, AmeriCorps Public Health, and HRSA, and has received foundation funding. Bruening is passionate about supporting students and faculty, working to create systems and pathways for students’ and faculty’s success. As part of her current portfolio, Bruening also directs training grants from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the TRANSCEND, and the TRANSCEND-Up Programs, which provide leadership, education, and training to graduate and undergraduate nutrition students to create a well-trained, more diverse workforce.