Kristen C. Giombi

Kristen Giombi is a research economist with experience in school health and food safety. In this role, she is responsible for conducting qualitative and quantitative analyses of programs and policies as well as developing logic models and tools for evaluations. For example, in the school health setting, Ms. Giombi has conducted interviews to examine state policy approaches to implementing healthy eating and physical activity standards in the out-of-school-time setting. She has also developed a tool to provide Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) with simple, easy-to-use data that will help PHA quantify and report on achievement of healthy eating and physical activity practices of afterschool program sites.

Ms. Giombi’s dissertation work focused on the impacts of the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program on childhood obesity and academic performance. This research won her the Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant from the RIDGE Center for Targeted Studies Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University, as well as the Outstanding Dissertation Award from Virginia Tech.