Oak-Hee Park, Ph.D.

Personal Information

Dr. Oak-Hee Park is a Research Assistant Professor in the College of Human Sciences, and Adjunct and Graduate faculty in Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University (TTU). She has conducted various research projects related to nutrition, food, health, and consumer behavior. Her current research areas focus on Nutrition Education/Interventions, Food Environment, Public Health, Obesity Prevention, and Sustainable Food System. Since 2013, Dr. Park has worked on the East Lubbock Promise Neighborhood (ELPN) grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education. As a Co-PI, she established the first community-based family cooking program (named “Let’s Cook, Eat, and Talk”, LCET hereafter) and led the LCET team to educate families in East Lubbock, a low-income and ethnic minority community that might have greater difficulty meeting USDA dietary guidelines, setting them at greater risk of health problems. The LCET program was successful to encourage healthy eating behaviors and interactive family mealtime for underserved families in the community. She also conducts a food environment study in the Lubbock County using the NEMS-S and NEMS-R surveys. Preventing obesity through nutrition education/interventions is one of the key areas for her current and future research. Dr. Park leads “Sustainable Life Skills to Reduce Obesity (SuLiSRO) Risk by improving protective factors for youth” program with an interdisciplinary team including five faculty from Nutrition, Design, Human Sciences, and Human Development & Family Studies at TTU. Further, she has been actively involved in 1) tart cherry menu development to improve cardiovascular and overweight conditions after consumption as part of regular diets and 2) imperfect produce research to relieve hunger and food waste problems through multidisciplinary collaborations.   

CV

Research Interests

Future Research Collaboration Interests

• Nutrition education/intervention 

• Bioactive food compounds and health benefits 

• Food environment and sustainable food systems