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Biography
Dr. Erin Hennessy is Director of ChildObesity180, Dean for Research Strategy at the Friedman School, and Associate Professor at the Friedman School and Tufts Medical School, where her work centers on childhood obesity prevention, nutrition and physical activity interventions, and advancing health equity for children and families most at risk. Her research targets modifiable risk factors across individual, community, and policy levels, and she leads large-scale multi‑sector collaborations—including major federally funded studies—to improve dietary behaviors, physical literacy, and early childhood health outcomes.
Dr. Hennessy is an action-oriented scientist seeking to generate new knowledge through collaboration with diverse communities that can support policy, system and environmental change at the local, state, and federal levels. In her role as Director of ChildObesity180, Dr. Hennessy oversees research, administrative, and financial activity. She steers overall strategy and leads the team in developing initiatives to support child nutrition and physical activity. She currently leads an active research portfolio including an $8.5 million award to test and evaluate the use of telehealth innovations in delivery of USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and, co-leads a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the New York Road Runners organization, to create and implement a multilevel intervention to support children’s physical literacy at school and home. She is also the PI of several pilot studies focused on nutrition, physical activity and obesity prevention in early childhood.
Before being appointed to the Faculty at Tufts, Dr. Hennessy was a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health where she led the FLASHE Study (Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health and Eating Study), one of the largest national studies to understand cancer preventive health behaviors among parent-child dyads. During her tenure at NIH, Dr. Hennessy received numerous awards for her research and leadership excellence. Dr. Hennessy has significant cross-sector experience ranging from industry to government to academia and uses this perspective to inform her work at ChildObesity180.
