Sheryl C. Cates

Sheryl Cates is a senior research scientist with more than 20 years of experience conducting research in the areas of food safety, nutrition, food policy, and food labeling. She specializes in health communication, formative research, program evaluation, and survey research. Ms. Cates works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Human Foods Program, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, and other agencies to conduct research and evaluation to inform program development.

Her research includes evaluating Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) education in seven states, evaluating nutrition education in the Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, and assessing SNAP retailers’ readiness to implement scanning technology. She has also conducted research to create and test new formats for the Safe Handling Instructions label, evaluate the impact of interventions on improving consumers’ food safety behaviors, evaluate materials for a social marketing campaign to promote food thermometer use, and assess consumer understanding of allergen labeling.