Biography
Christina A. Roberto, PhD is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor of Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at Penn. The Center brings together researchers across Penn and CHOP to develop innovative policy solutions to the world’s most urgent food system challenges. Unhealthy diets are a leading cause of premature death globally. At the Center, researchers collaborate with policy change agents to design and rigorously test food policies that can promote health and save lives. Dr. Roberto is a highly cited scientist whose research has directly informed U.S. food and nutrition policy. She is a sought-after speaker and advisor, an award-winning mentor, and her work is regularly covered by major media outlets.
Dr. Roberto has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Princeton University where she graduated magna cum laude. She earned a joint-PhD at Yale University in clinical psychology and chronic disease epidemiology. Dr. Roberto completed her clinical internship at the Yale School of Medicine and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she was also faculty before coming to Penn. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader, an elected member of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, recipient of the Sarah Samuels Memorial Award from the Food and Nutrition Section of the American Public Health Association, The Thomas A. Wadden Award for Distinguished Mentorship from the Obesity Society, and the Penn Medicine William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award.
