The primary role of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) is to review and provide ongoing feedback on Feeding America research projects in order to ensure our ability to deliver the highest quality of information to food banks and other service providers within the Feeding America network. TAG Members also collaborate with us to conduct new research on charitable food assistance, poverty, program evaluation, client studies, etc. The Feeding America TAG is comprised of independent researchers whose views do not necessarily align with those of Feeding America.
Craig C. Gundersen
Snee Family Endowed Chair, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty
Baylor University
Ph.D., University of California, Riverside
B.A., University of Notre Dame
Craig Gundersen is the Snee Family Endowed Chair at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty (BCHP) and a Professor in the Department of Economics at Baylor University, is on the Technical Advisory Group for Feeding America, is the lead researcher on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap project, and is the Managing Editor for Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. He is also a Round Table Member of the Farm Foundation, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and a Faculty Affiliate of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame. His research concentrates on the causes and consequences of food insecurity and on the evaluation of food assistance programs, with an emphasis on SNAP.
Alison Jacknowitz
Associate Professor
School of Public Affairs: Public Administration and Policy
American University
Ph.D., RAND Graduate School
M.P.P., The College of William & Mary
B.A., Colgate University
Alison Jacknowitz (PhD, Policy Analysis) is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy and Associate Chair of the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. She regularly teaches Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis, Social Policy and Programs, and Public Program Evaluation. Jacknowitz has been the recipient of the University’s Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Appointment award as well as the Innovative Use of Technology in Teaching award. She conducts research on issues related to poverty, the elderly, and children and families. Jacknowitz’s research has been supported by the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Institute for Research on Poverty, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Her work has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals including: Contemporary Economic Policy, Demography, Journal of Nutrition, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Pediatrics, Maternal and Child Health Journal, Social Service Review, The Journal of Human Resources, Women & Health, and Women’s Health Issues. Jacknowitz is a Research Affiliate at the University of Michigan’s National Poverty Center.
Katie S. Martin
CEO, More Than Food Consulting, LLC
Ph.D., Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy
B.A., Indiana University
Katie is the CEO of More Than Food Consulting, LLC whose goal is to create a paradigm shift in the approach to tackling hunger. In this role, Katie collaborates with Feeding America, food banks, and community partners to increase access to healthy food, address root causes of hunger, and identify better practices to reduce food insecurity. Katie is recognized as a thought leader on food security issues, and has over 25 years of experience developing and evaluating holistic solutions to hunger. She earned a Ph.D. in Nutritional Science & Policy from Tufts University, and has presented her work at dozens of regional and national conferences. Katie is happily married, is the proud mom of two sons, and blessed to be a host parent for an exchange student from Nigeria. Katie is the author of a new book titled Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger, released in March 2021.
Angela Odoms-Young
Associate Professor in the Division of Nutrition Sciences, Cornell University
Director of the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities Program and New York State Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program
B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Angela Odoms-Young, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Director of the New York State Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in the Division of Nutrition Sciences, College of Human Ecology/College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.
Her research examines the social and structural determinants of dietary behaviors, food insecurity, and related health outcomes in low-income and black and Latinx populations. Dr. Odoms-Young’s work also centers on identifying culturally responsive programs and policies that promote health equity, food justice, and community resilience.
Dr. Odoms-Young has 200+ academic presentations, book chapters, and publications and has served on numerous advisory committees and boards, including the National Academy of Sciences Food and Nutrition Board, the Institute of Medicine committees to develop the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program/School Breakfast Program and to revise the food packages provided in the Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Additionally, Dr. Odoms-Young has served on the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Grow Greater Englewood, Blacks in Green, and the American Heart Association Metro Chicago.
Dr. Odoms-Young received her B.S. in Foods and Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and M.S./PhD in Community Nutrition from Cornell University. Additionally, she completed a Family Research Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship examining family processes in diverse populations at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Community Health Scholars Fellowship in community-based participatory research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Prior to joining Cornell DNS, Dr. Odoms-Young served on the faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition and Northern Illinois University in Public Health and Health Education.
Hilary Seligman
UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations
Senior Medical Advisor, Feeding America
M.A.S. in Clinical Research, University of California San Francisco
M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
B.A., Williams College
Dr. Seligman is an expert in food insecurity and its health implications across the life course. Her policy and advocacy expertise focus on federal nutrition programs (particularly SNAP), food banking and the charitable food network, hunger policy, food affordability and access, and income-related drivers of food choice. She directs the Food Policy, Health, and Hunger Research Program at UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations at San Francisco General Hospital and the CDC’s Nutrition and Obesity Policy, Research and Evaluation Network (www.nopren.org). Dr. Seligman founded EatSF, a healthy foods voucher program for low-income residents of San Francisco. Outside of San Francisco, EatSF is known as Vouchers for Veggies.
Elaine Waxman
Senior Fellow
The Urban Institute
Ph.D., University of Chicago
M.P.P., University of Chicago
B.A., Indiana University
Elaine Waxman is a Senior Fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at The Urban Institute (UI). Her expertise includes food insecurity, nutrition, and the food assistance safety net, the social determinants of health disparities, as well as broader issues affecting low-income families and communities. Prior to joining the Institute, Waxman served as the Vice President of Research and Nutrition at Feeding America, where she oversaw research on food insecurity, the intersection of hunger and health, and the circumstances and experiences of individuals seeking food assistance. In that role, Waxman supervised Hunger in America 2014, the largest study ever conducted of charitable feeding in the United States, and collaborated on the development of Map the Meal Gap project, the first county-level estimates of food insecurity in the U.S.
Waxman previously conducted research on the structure of low-wage work and challenges facing low-income working families through a series of research initiatives at the University of Chicago and in this capacity. She has co-authored numerous research and policy reports and articles in scholarly journals, including Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, Social Service Review, Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and Journal of Food Law and Policy. She received her PhD from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, where she is currently a Lecturer. She also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.
Former TAG Members
Robert Santos - Chief Methodologist at the Urban Institute