Featured Researchers

Featured Researchers

Moore Family Center

See how the Moore Family Center's dedicated faculty are helping individuals and communities live healthier through healthy foods and good nutrition.

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Emily Ho, PhD

Emily Ho, PhD

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The power of vegetable consumption for cancer prevention.

Vegetables contain many essential nutrients and also other compounds that have health promoting properties.   Dr. Emily Ho, with collaborations in the Linus Pauling Institute, has focused research on how a compound called sulforaphane, an important bioactive dietary phytochemical derived from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, has potent anticancer properties.   Sulforaphane enhances the expression of tumor suppressor genes that are often silenced in cancer cells.  When better understood and studied, it’s possible that sulforaphane or other dietary compounds may be added to traditional cancer therapies, whether to prevent cancer, slow its progression, treat it or stop its recurrence.

In addition to the lab research – we are interested in helping communities understand the value of consuming more vegetables and help enable it.  In partnership with OSU Extension and Samaritan Pastega Regional Cancer Center, a recent project funded by the Knight Cancer Institute pairs OSU Extension Master Gardeners and nutrition educators with cancer survivors to provide them with support for gardening and healthy eating, and enable them on their wellness journey.

Read Inside the mind of researcher Emily Ho to learn more about her current research.

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Jenny Jackson, PhD, MS, RDN, CHWC

Jenny Jackson, PhD, MS, RDN, CHWC

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Jenny’s research interests include community-based and epidemiological investigations focused on food security and the promotion of healthy eating and physical activity behaviors across the lifespan. Her current projects address food insecurity among college students in the U.S. In 2020-21, Jenny and colleagues completed the first assessment of food insecurity at OSU, including Corvallis, Cascades, and Ecampus.

She also serves as Co-PI on a multi-state study that aims to explore and more deeply understand food insecurity in the college student population and to identify nutrition intervention strategies to address the underlying factors associated with college student food insecurity.   

Read Inside the mind of researcher Jenny Jackson to learn more about her current research.

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Mary Cluskey, Ph.D., RD

Mary Cluskey, PhD, RD

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Nutrition Associate Professor Mary Cluskey serves as the director of the Healthy Diets and Food core in the Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health, the Dietetics internship director and undergraduate curriculum coordinator for Nutrition in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. From 1996-2010, she served as the OSU Dietetic program director at Oregon State. Throughout her career, Mary held various titles, including serving as a wellness program consultant for the Corvallis Fire Department, a food service director and registered dietitian at Capital Manor Retirement in Salem, nutrition instructor at several colleges, and a consultant dietitian for healthcare facilities. She completed her Ph.D. in Nutrition and Food Management at Oregon State University and her master’s degree in Nutrition Education at Illinois State University.

Read Inside the mind of researcher Mary Cluskey to learn more about her current research.

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Siew Sun Wong, PhD, MS

Siew Sun Wong, PhD, MS

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Professor and Extension Nutrition Specialist Siew Sun Wong came to Oregon State in 2011.  She is a researcher in the CPHHS Moore Family Center, Family and Community Health Program, and the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families.  Her tech-aided research focuses on childhood obesity and parental influences on adolescent nutrition.  She led a five-year, multidisciplinary NIFA AFRI project called The WAVE~Ripples for Change that integrates Extension outreach, research and education to combine real-world and virtual-world learning experiences for high school athletes to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

Over 20 years, she participated in six USDA AES multistate projects.  She was a visiting scholar at the USDA NIFA Division of Family Consumer Sciences, ARS National Nutrient Data Lab and Food Survey Research Group.  Being the 2021 OSU Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring by a Faculty Member Award recipient, she mentors teams of cross-disciplinary undergraduate students in community nutrition projects, including learning game development in her Nutrition Game Lab.

Read Inside the mind of researcher Siew Sun Wong to learn more about her current research.