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University of Illinois Cancer Center member Jamie Chriqui, PhD, is the corresponding author of an article published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM).

The article, “Advancing Policy, Systems and Environmental Change Research to Reverse Upward Trends in Obesity Prevalence—A New Call to Action,” is a scholarly review highlighting what the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) learned through a series of workshops entitled Obesity-Related Policy, Systems and Environmental Research in the U.S. (OPUS). Chriqui co-chaired the OPUS workshops with her co-authors. NCCOR is led by some of the nation's leading research funders — the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) –– to build evidence and advance practice to reduce childhood obesity in the United States.

What was revealed was “the urgent need for researchers, practitioners and funders to take on challenges of increasing capacity for and implementing innovative research models relevant to real-world policy and practice, with support from complementary funding mechanisms,” the authors wrote.

Chriqui, a member of the Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program, is Senior Associate Dean and Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration at the UIC School of Public Health. Her research focuses on a broad spectrum of chronic disease policy-related issues, particularly the built environment and physical activity, obesity, nutrition and school health and wellness. 

Other article authors are from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.