Nicole L. Furr: The undergraduate class that shaped how I view health

Nicole Furr hopes to impact her current and future students the same way her own professors have had a long-lasting impact on her career goals. Photo courtesy of Nicole Furr.

This piece was written in the fall of 2025 by GRAD 5144 (Communicating Science) student Nicole L. Furr as part of an assignment to write a personal narrative about her research.

As an undergraduate student, I had a passion for food, nutrition, and health. I was excited to attend courses related to dietetics and nutrition to learn what people should eat to support their health and physical well-being. During my undergraduate career, I enjoyed the course material and the information I was learning.

One semester during my junior year of undergraduate studies, I attended a lecture in a public health course that discussed the social determinants of health, described as the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. The instructor discussed the influence that where people live, eat, work, grow, and play had on their access to a healthy life. I had an understanding that people, communities, and populations had varying levels of access to food, physical activity opportunities, and healthcare. Yet the professor presenting research and data related to the social determinants of health and health-related outcomes changed my perspective and career goals.

Because of this experience, I began to consider that nutrition professionals must go beyond telling people what to eat through one-on-one counseling or individualized programs. I began to study the policy, community, institutional, and physical food environments in which people live, work, and play. While this was not a new concept, I was eager to learn more about policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that could influence dietary patterns. This led me to apply to a graduate program focused on community food security. During this time, I was presented with coursework related to community food systems, food and nutrition policy, nutrition research, and program planning for communities.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After graduating, I went on to work at two different Feeding America food banks that provided healthy foods and food assistance for communities. This work was important and rewarding. I worked with food pantries and organizations to understand how to best support the communities that we served. This further fueled my interest in understanding the impacts food policies and programs have on population health and nutrition security.

Fast forward to 2022: I applied to a Ph.D. program at Virginia Tech to study food systems, food and nutrition policy, and behavior change. Since starting my Ph.D. program, I have been working to study how policy, systems, and environmental change strategies are being applied at the institutional level to encourage dietary patterns that support human and planetary health.

My dissertation research focuses on higher education institutions and policy, systems, and environmental change strategies to encourage university students to adopt sustainable and healthy dietary patterns for personal and planetary health. My research is interdisciplinary in nature with a focus on the promotion of nutrition and environmental sustainability. Last October, I had the opportunity to present some of my dissertation research at the National Sustainability Society conference (pictured below).

Furr standing to the left of a research poster about sustainable diets at higher education institutions. — Nicole Furr presents her research titled “Exploring how United States higher education institutions use marketing-mix choice architecture strategies to encourage plant-rich, sustainable diet transitions: a systematic scoping review, 2010-2024.” Photo courtesy of Nicole Furr.

As I reflect on my academic experiences thus far, I think back to some of my professors who shaped my research interests and perspectives. My academic and professional background demonstrates that professors have a great influence on the career paths of their students. During the public health course that I took about ten years ago, I was presented with concepts related to health equity, food justice, and health disparities. These concepts are now at the center of some of my work. As a researcher, I hope my findings encourage institutional change to provide healthy, affordable, and environmentally sustainable foods, beverages, and meals to populations by altering the policy, community, institutional, and physical environment. As a graduate teaching assistant, I hope to impact my current and future students the same way in which my professors have had a long-lasting impact on my career goals.