Patricia B. Crawford DrPH ’94, MPH ’72 is the senior director of research at the Nutrition Policy Institute and an adjunct professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. In 1999, she co-directed and led the pioneering nutrition evaluation and policy center at Berkeley, the Center for Weight and Health. She led more than 100 studies that employed environmental, family, and policy approaches to reduce the epidemic of childhood obesity in California and across the country. She authored the American Public Health Association’s resolution and action plan on childhood obesity, which in 2001-02 was voted a priority for the organization.

“Berkeley moment”

Hearing Desmond Tutu speak on apartheid.

A change to one U.S. policy that would transform public health

I would restrict industry’s ability to market junk food to our children. The United States is a leader in child obesity because junk food is cheap, accessible, ubiquitous, and heavily marketed. It is hard to believe that we allow this to continue given that by the time youth graduate high school nearly 1/4 have pre-diabetes or diabetes.

Movie of my life at SPH

The Insider: a true story on Big Tobacco and the forces that the public health community must deal with.