Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series—The Center for Research on Families welcomes Maureen Black, Ph.D., who will present "Building Blocks: Promoting Healthy Habits Through Child Care."

The high prevalence of pediatric obesity is setting children on a trajectory that includes health disparities throughout life. Dr. Black will address the evidence from systems-level interventions conducted among child care centers in promoting healthy habits and preventing obesity among young children. 

Black is the Director of the Growth and Nutrition Clinic (GNC), an interdisciplinary, family-centered, outpatient clinic located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. GNC provides comprehensive evaluations and interventions to infants and toddlers with failure to thrive or feeding difficulties. Established in 1989, the clinic serves as a statewide referral resource that has treated more than 1000 children whose growth deficiency results from medical, nutritional, psychological, family, or environmental causes.  
 

This lecture is sponsored by the Center for Research on Families’ Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series. The Center for Research on Families (CRF) is an endowed interdisciplinary research center in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series brings internationally recognized speakers with expertise in family research to campus each year. The lecture series began in 1999 through an endowment established in memory of Tay Gavin Erickson.