{"id":75465,"date":"2026-03-24T08:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=75465"},"modified":"2026-07-16T08:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:37:37","slug":"behind-the-research-at-utc-dr-marissa-mcelrone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/behind-the-research-at-utc-dr-marissa-mcelrone\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the research at UTC: Dr. Marissa McElrone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marissa

Dr. Marissa McElrone began teaching at UTC in 2020. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, research is making a difference in labs, industry and even on your dining room table.<\/p>\n

\"Logo<\/p>\n

For UC Foundation Associate Professor Marissa McElrone, making a difference comes through how food gets on people\u2019s tables. A faculty member in the Department of Health and Human Performance, McElrone brings experience from previous positions, including serving as a minority health promotion coordinator; a Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program nutritionist; a nutrition leadership trainee through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau; and a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

She also holds Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and Certified in Public Health (CPH) credentials.<\/p>\n

She is currently working on two projects focused on nutrition and food security, specifically federal nutrition assistance programs and emergency food systems.<\/p>\n

====================================================<\/p>\n

Click here for more \u201cBehind the research at UTC\u201d stories<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

====================================================<\/p>\n

What are you working on with your two research projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne is with data from a local food pantry. We\u2019re looking at the relationship between home and food pantry environments and people\u2019s attitudes towards fruits and vegetables. Their self-efficacy, such as actually cooking fruits and vegetables, and other barriers related to outcomes of nutrition security. Which is this concept of, \u2018Do I have access to healthful food that promotes health for everyone in my household that meets my dietary preferences or my cultural preferences?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother big project that I work on \u2026 I\u2019m a contracted research scientist with a nonprofit called the Center of Nutrition and Health Impact. I work with them on a USDA-funded WIC modernization project. It\u2019s a federal nutrition assistance program called the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides nutrition education as well as nutrition benefits that people can use at the grocery store or at farmers\u2019 markets to support pregnant people, infants and children up to age 5, as well as breastfeeding postpartum. So that program\u2019s been around for a long time and there\u2019s been a lot of effort to really modernize it to increase accessibility for folks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project I work on with them is that we have sub-grantees across the entire country that are really testing innovative strategies and different ways to try to increase participation, enrollment and awareness of the WIC program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has health always been a passion for you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in health. I\u2019m actually the youngest of 11 kids and a lot of my older brothers and sisters are in some avenue of health. One sister\u2019s a physician. I have a physical therapy nurse in the family. One sister was in kinesiology, so lots of us have gravitated towards health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something in health from a young age. I grew up Catholic, and I gave up high fructose corn syrup for Lent one year, and my mom\u2019s like, \u2018OK, so we know where she\u2019s probably headed.\u2019 I loved chemistry and my high school chemistry teacher told me, \u2018You love health, you like chemistry, nutrition is like this beautiful mix of those two things.\u2019 So I went to Penn State, did my undergrad in nutritional sciences, and obviously, the dietetic side is really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

What specific areas within this research interest you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>For a really long time, the field of public health nutrition was interested in this concept of food security, and it was\u00a0more focused on whether people are getting enough food to support a healthy life. In the last five or so years, the public health nutrition field has really transitioned; we still understand that food security is important, but there\u2019s this extension that we call nutrition security that\u2019s really about, \u2018Are people getting health-promoting food?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super interested in understanding more about that concept of the populations that I work with and how we can start moving the needle while also addressing food security. But really getting at that health component that goes beyond\u00a0getting people enough food.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students interested in your research or the health field, how would you encourage them to pursue that path?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of different disciplines that can get at this problem and address it from different lenses, so go into fields like sociology, anthropology and public health\u2014and even some of the health sciences like exercise and health science. Focus more on the community applied pieces, which can get you exposure to working with the community and understanding what\u2019s going on and realizing that you need multiple perspectives at the table to address issues like this because it\u2019s not just one discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

UTC Department of Health and Human Performance<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For University of Tennessee at Chattanooga UC Foundation Associate Professor Marissa McElrone, making a difference comes through how food gets on people\u2019s tables.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading 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