Leslie Mikkelsen, Managing Director, MPH, RD
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Leslie Mikkelsen, Managing Director, has been with Prevention Institute since 1999. Leslie plays a crucial role in advancing the conceptual work of the organization, and she has taken the lead in developing and managing the Institute's work in the areas of healthy eating and active living. Leslie heads a team focused on environmental and policy approaches to supporting healthy food and activity environments, with a particular emphasis on addressing inequities in communities of color and low-income communities. She develops tools and materials to support local and state initiatives and trains government agencies, foundations, and community collaboratives across the United States on environmental strategies, coalition building, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Leslie also oversees qualitative research and literature reviews, convenes researchers and practitioners to help inform policy and practice, and writes extensively.
Leslie is co-founder and Project Director for the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a California-based coalition of leading public health groups that has been successfully advancing a multi-faceted environmental change agenda that influenced state legislation and was incorporated into the Governor's California Obesity Prevention plan. Her related publications include Setting the Record Straight: Nutritionists and Health Professionals Define Healthful Food and Where's the Fruit? Fruit Content of the Most Highly Advertised Children's Food and Beverages. Since 1999, Leslie has been directing projects synthesizing academic research and field discoveries into a set of tools and materials that delineate best practices and promising approaches for environmental change. This resulted in creating ENACT (Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool), an interactive Web-based tool providing a menu of strategies and resources and the ENACT Local Policy Database featuring exemplary policies from across a range of venues and jurisdictions nationwide.
As a Policy Consultant to the national Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, Leslie directs research and helps shape national strategy related to policy priorities supporting healthy food and activity environments. The Convergence Partnership is a collaborative of America's leading health funders, including government agencies and private foundations. Leslie's recently published Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments highlights this work. Supporting sustainable agriculture and locally grown whole foods is also a top priority for the Institute. In Cultivating Common Ground: Linking Health and Sustainable Agriculture, Leslie shows potential linkages and overlap between sustainable agriculture and public health.
Leslie also served as Learning Consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Childhood Obesity Team, synthesizing results from selected grants to improve the effectiveness of funding for environmental and policy-related projects. She is a member of the Food Work Group of the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue and developed and taught the Food Policy course for UC Berkeley's School of Public Health.
A hallmark of Leslie's work is her deep commitment to solving inequities, and at Prevention Institute she builds on her decade-long experience working for the Alameda County and New York City Food Banks directing programs to address hunger and mobilizing community advocacy. Leslie is the winner of the American Public Health Association Food and Nutrition Section 2008 Catherine Cowell Award for Excellence in Public Health Nutrition. She received her MPH from UC Berkeley.
