Rachel Bleiwess Sande, MA
PhD Candidate in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Tufts University, Boston, MA
2018
Mentor Dr. Sacheck
Recent Work
Rachel Bleiweiss-Sande is a doctoral candidate in the division of Nutrition Interventions, Communication and Behavior Change at the Friedman School. Under the advisement of Dr. Jennifer Sacheck, Rachel’s’ dissertation research is focused on the role of processed foods in the diets of underserved children in the United States. This topic is explored through the lens of food classification, consumer perceptions, and associations between processed food consumption and health outcomes including obesity. Other areas of interest include food literacy, immigrant health and strategies to increase parent involvement in community-based interventions.
Prior to Tufts, Rachel received a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from Princeton University. After college, she became deeply involved in the food industry, attending cooking school, working as the personal assistant to a food writer, and teaching cooking classes to underserved youth. Rachel received her Masters in Science from the Friedman School in 2015, allowing her to combine a knowledge of nutrition and food to better inform her health communication studies.
Rachel has worked on numerous research projects while at Tufts, including Dr. Sacheck’s Fueling Learning Through Exercise Study where she assisted with dietary survey development and validation; the Project Bread Chefs in Schools project to evaluate the success of a chef-developed lunches on student dietary adequacy, and the GREEN project, an intervention to improve the quality of meals children bring from home.