Jessica Jones-Smith

Jessica Jones-Smith is a public health expert who previously served as an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for four years. She specializes in the socioeconomic factors influencing food choices and health outcomes, particularly in relation to obesity and nutrition-related health disparities. Her career began in San Francisco as a dietitian, where she observed significant disparities in diet quality across different socioeconomic groups. After her tenure at Johns Hopkins, she joined the University of Washington as an Associate Professor, where she leads initiatives to address obesity and food-related health issues. Jones-Smith has been involved in various research projects, including studies on the impact of Seattle's soda tax on purchasing behaviors. She holds multiple degrees, including a PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and an MPH in Public Health Nutrition from the University of California–Berkeley. Her work emphasizes the importance of integrating health communication with policy to improve public health outcomes.