The Information Session portion of the conference was held June 6, 2005, 9:30am - 3:30pm at MVR Hall, Cornell University with live video links in Rochester, New York City, Albany and 7 other locations:
- Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City
- University at Albany School of Public Health, Rensselaer
- Broome County: CCE (Cornell Cooperative Extension), Binghamton
- Cattaraugus County: CCE, Ellicottville
- Clinton County: CCE, Plattsburgh
- Jefferson County: CCE, Watertown
- Monroe County: CCE, Rochester
- Saratoga County: CCE, Ballston Spa
- Suffolk County: CCE, Riverhead
- Westchester County: CCE, Valhalla
Conference Focus:
Participants had a unique opportunity to learn how such ecological factors as the social, economic and built environment interact to influence diet and physical activity throughout the life course. Particular attention was paid to disparate impacts on vulnerable populations.
The agenda included the following distinguished speakers:
Penny Gordon-Larsen, Ph.D. , Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
James O. Hill, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado, and Director of the Center for Human Nutrition.
James F. Sallis, Ph.D. , Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research Program.
The Working Session portion of the conference was held June 6, 5:30 - 9:30pm and June 7, 7:30am - 6:30pm in MVR Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
For more information about the conference, see the Ecology of Obesity Conference Booklet (a 900k pdf file), which includes the final conference agenda, presentation abstracts, poster abstracts, and a list of attendees.
For the more scientific proceedings from the conference, please see the following article:
Wells NM, Olson CM. The Ecology of Obesity: Perspectives from Life Course, Design, and Economics. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. 2006;1(3):99-129.
Abstract:
This paper presents an ecological perspective on obesity drawing on papers presented at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. The conference presentations examined obesity through the life course perspective and two disciplinary orientations: design and economics. In this paper, the presentations are focused through Brofenbrenner’s ecology of human development. Particular attention is paid to identifying people, times, and places of vulnerability and leverage points — points of influence in a lifetime, environments, and policies that may be targets for effective intervention to prevent obesity.
