Speakers: Nicole Tichner Blackstone, Fang Fang Zhang, Sean Cash, Julia Matteson (Tufts)Description: The Leading A Sustainability Transition In Nutrition Globally (LASTING) Project aims to produce evidence-based recommendations, methods, and metrics for integrated sustainability assessment of dietary patterns. Our four-pillar approach to sustainability encompasses environmental, health, economic, and social outcomes. This research roundtable will include a discussion of the LASTING framework and trade-offs between sustainability pillars, focusing on several example commodities, and dive into how to operationalize modeling these trade-offs using available data sources in the U.S.Nicole Tichenor Blackstone is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to improve food system sustainability. To date, her research has explored the environmental and social implications of diverse production systems (e.g., grass-fed beef, cultivated meat, fruits and vegetables), human diets, and regional food systems. Currently, she leads the Leading a Sustainability Transition in Nutrition Globally (LASTING) Project, which aims to produce evidence-based recommendations, methods, and metrics for integrated sustainability assessment of dietary patterns. On LASTING, she co-leads teams focused on social metrics development and integrated modeling of dietary sustainability outcomes. Dr. Blackstone is also a founding affiliated faculty member of the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture. She is PI on a project developing sustainable animal-free scaffolds for cultivated meat and Co-PI on a large, interdisciplinary project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leading the project’s environmental assessment team.Dr. Fang Fang Zhang is the associate professor and interim chair of the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University. She is a nutritional epidemiologist with expertise in assessing dietary intake patterns, trends, and disparities in the population, and conducting observational studies and clinical trials to investigate the role of nutrition in chronic disease prevention and control. Dr. Zhang’s research interests also include quantifying preventable cancer burden associated with suboptimal diet and assessing the cost-effectiveness of population strategies to improve diet and reduce cancer burden and disparities in the US, and evaluating strategies to integrate food and nutrition into healthcare. She is co-leading the LASTING project focused on assessing the impact of diet on four pillars (health, environment, cost, and society). Dr. Zhang is a recipient of the Eileen O'Neil Citation for Excellence in Teaching and an inaugural recipient of the Miriam E. Nelson Tisch Faculty Fellow from Tufts University.Dr. Cash is an economist who conducts research both internationally and domestically on food, nutrition, agriculture and the environment. He is interested in the environmental impacts in food and beverage production, including projects on crop quality and climate change, consumer interest in production attributes of tea and coffee, and invasive species management. He also focuses on how food, nutrition, and environmental policies affect food consumption and choice, with specific interest in children's nutrition and consumer interest in environmental and nutritional attributes of food. He teaches courses in statistics, agricultural and environmental economics, and consumer behavior around food. His research has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, NIH, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman's Own Foundation, among other agencies. He is currently Chief Editor of the Food Policy and Economics Section of Frontiers in Nutrition and on the editorial board of Agribusiness, and has served as the Chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.Julia Matteson is the Project Manager for the LASTING Project, IMMANA, and Food Prices for Nutrition Projects. Julia works to strategically manage and administratively support the on-going research for these projects. Prior to joining the Friedman School, Julia served as a Princeton in Latin America Research Field Assistant at Osa Conservation, working to incorporate agroecology into the restoration efforts of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. She has also worked on several USAID Feed the Future funded projects focused on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and agri-business investment in Rwanda and Nigeria. She holds a BA in International Development from George Washington University and is currently an MS Candidate in the Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs (FANPP) degree at the Friedman School.Moderator: Brooke BellBrooke M. Bell, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Sustainable Food Systems Modeling at Tuft University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She is broadly interested in health and food policy, food systems, climate change, and environmental justice. Her current work examines how food systems and policies can be leveraged and transformed to encourage eating behaviors that improve chronic disease outcomes and help mitigate climate change and its subsequent effects on human health. Dr. Bell received her B.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Health Behavior Research (Public Health) from the University of Southern California, and she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Yale School of Public Health.