I bring rigorous research, compelling stories, and practical policy insights to conversations about food, families, inequality, and health. Drawing on years of ethnographic research inside American families’ homes and kitchens, I help audiences understand why healthy eating is so difficult—and what families’ experiences can teach us about building better food and nutrition policy.

I speak to universities, healthcare and public-health organizations, nonprofits, foundations, libraries, community organizations, and policy audiences.

Signature talks

How the Other Half Eats
Food, family life, and inequality in America
An intimate, research-based account of how inequality enters American kitchens, shapes parents’ decisions, and influences what children learn to eat.

Beyond Food Deserts
What conventional approaches to nutritional inequality miss
A timely examination of what geographic food access can—and cannot—explain, the deeper forces shaping families’ diets, and the implications for policy.

Why Feeding a Family Is So Hard
Parenting, pleasure, pressure, and the modern food industry
A compassionate exploration of the hidden labor of feeding children and the pressures parents navigate amid limited time, economic constraints, children’s preferences, and pervasive marketing.

Selected audiences

Stanford University School of Medicine · Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy · London School of Economics · Boston Children’s Hospital · Federal Reserve Bank of New York · Columbia University · Cornell University · Marsh McLennan · American College of Physicians · U.S. Bank · Oregon Health & Science University · University of Michigan · San Francisco-Marin Food Bank · Boston University · Center for Science in the Public Interest · The Community Builders · CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute

Available formats

Keynotes, conference presentations, moderated conversations, panels, medical grand rounds, university and community events, and virtual engagements.

For speaking inquiries, please contact Jayme Boucher at jayme.boucher@hbgusa.com.