2026 Virginia A. Beal Lecture to Highlight Virtual Assistant Created for Food Insecure Populations
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The Department of Nutrition welcomes Christopher Stuetzle, Eleanor Shonkoff, and Elizabeth Natale from Merrimack College to the 38th annual Virginia A. Beal Lecture as they present “Virtual Assistant Designed and Tailored for Food Insecure Populations.”
The event will be held on April 13th in the Campus Center’s Amherst Room beginning at 5 pm with a dinner to follow. The event is free and open to all, but seating is limited and registration is required by April 3rd. More information can be found on the event webpage.
Food insecurity remains a public health issue, disproportionately impacting low-income and marginalized communities. The Merrimack College team will present details of their study to design and develop a virtual assistant that addresses key aspects of food insecurity by supporting users’ access to culturally appropriate meal planning, affordable and healthy foods, support for nutrition assistance programs, navigating public transit and locating affordable options.
The study’s lead is Christopher Stuetzle, Academic Dean of Computational Sciences and Co-Director of the School of Engineering and Computational Sciences at Merrimack College. He is a founding member of the Food Justice Research and Action Cluster (FJRAC), which actively tackles local food insecurity and promotes food justice by engaging with community partners and applying its expertise in problem solving efforts in conjunction with their partners.
Eleanor Shonkoff is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Merrimack College. Her research examines the links between parent factors (e.g. feeding practices, stress), child dietary intake and child obesity risk, particularly within underserved populations facing food insecurity. She is also a co-founding member of the Food Justice Research and Action Cluster.
Elizabeth Natale is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Merrimack College. Her research interests focus on outpatient/ambulatory nutrition care, chronic disease and obesity, food and nutrition security, and food as medicine.
In 1989, the late UMass Amherst nutrition professor and pioneer Virginia A. Beal established an endowment to provide students, faculty, dietetics professionals, alumni and friends with an opportunity to discuss the challenges and advances at the forefront of the nutrition field. The Virginia A. Beal Lectureship Fund makes possible the annual celebration of nutrition research. Beal presented the first lecture in 1989. At the event, the department also presents endowed scholarships, one of which bears Beal’s name, to the department’s finest students.