Kelly Brownell of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity to lecture at Quinnipiac University Oct. 11

 Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for
Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, will deliver the lecture, "Is There the Courage to Change the American
Diet?" at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11 in the Clarice L. Buckman Theater at Quinnipiac University. This
lecture, sponsored by the Quinnipiac University
Interdisciplinary Program for Research and Scholarship, is free and open to the public.

Brownell’s talk will cover some of the controversial approaches to issues such as food and addiction, food marketing directed at children, and policies such as taxes on sugared beverages. The roles individuals can play as
professionals, members of the community, parents, and advocates can be significant. 

“Food affects our emotional and physical lives in a great many ways,” said Brownell, who also is a professor of psychology, epidemiology and public health at Yale. “Beyond clinical problems such as anorexia, bulimia,
binge eating and obesity, decisions people make about food affect their day-to-day lives, not to mention global issues ranging from health care expenses to climate change created in part by modern agriculture. There is a
balance to be struck between educating/imploring people to change one at a time vs. changing policies that create better food environments for people millions at a time.”

In 2006 Time magazine listed Brownell among “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” in its special Time 100 issue featuring those “…whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world.”

Brownell was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in 2006 and has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the American Psychological Association, Graduate Mentoring Award
from Yale, the James McKeen Cattell Award from the New York Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Rutgers University, and the Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology from the American Psychological Association. He has served in a number of leadership roles at Yale including master of Silliman College and chair of the Department of Psychology.

He has published 15 books and more than 350 scientific articles and chapters.  One book received the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Book from the American Library Association, and his paper on "Understanding and
Preventing Relapse" published in the “American Psychologist” was listed as one of the most frequently cited papers in psychology.

Brownell served as president of several national organizations, including the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and
the Division of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Brownell has advised the White House, members of congress, governors, world health and nutrition organizations, and media leaders on issues of nutrition, obesity, and public policy. He was cited as a “moral entrepreneur” with special influence on public discourse in a history of the obesity field and was cited by “Time”
magazine as a leading “warrior” in the area of nutrition and public policy. 

Following the lecture, Quinnipiac students will
present their research at a poster session from 4-5-p.m. in the Buckman Theater lobby.

For more information on the lecture, call 203-582-8652.