Jylana L. Sheats, PhD, MPH

Clinical Associate Professor

Phone
504-988-9937
Suite 2200-32
Jylana Sheats headshot

Education & Affiliations

Post-Doctoral Certificate, Stanford University
PhD, Indiana University-Bloomington
MPH, Nutrition, Tulane University
BA, Psychology, Spelman College

Biography

Jylana L. Sheats is a behavior scientist and educator. Within the broader fields of nutrition and physical activity, her research focuses on the examination of individual, social, contextual, environmental, and policy-related determinants of obesity and chronic. To address health disparities among among racial/ethnic and vulnerable populations, Dr. Sheats develops and tests theoretically grounded community- and technology-based interventions. With the support of a National Institutes of Health career development award, she is testing efficacy of culturally-informed communication technologies to change the food-related behaviors African Americans residing in New Orleans. Prior to Tulane, Dr. Sheats was a researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, Healthy Aging Research and Technology Solutions (HARTS) Lab. Utilizing her post-doctoral research training in behavioral science, she co-directed technology-based (i.e., embodied conversational agents, SMS, mobile apps, wireless and sensor-based devices) randomized controlled trials to promote health behavior change; and community-based efforts to create healthy communities and policies.

Research Areas

  • Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention
  • Social and Environmental Determinants of Health
  • Utilization of technology to promote behavior change

Honors & Awards

  • 2016: National Institutes of Health, Tulane Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) career development award
  • 2015: Center for Active Design Excellence Award (for work with the Healthy Aging Research and Technology Solutions Lab at Stanford School of Medicine)

Publications

View Dr. Sheats' publications at her NCBI profile page.

Courses

SBPS 6610 Local Food Systems & Nutrition