Assistant Professor Katherine Hendel has received the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, one of the University of Minnesota’s highest honors for early-career faculty. The award recognizes outstanding junior faculty with strong potential for significant contributions based on the originality, significance, and impact of their work, their record of achievement and future promise, and their commitment to teaching, mentoring, and community engagement.
Hendel’s research focuses on bridging the gap between research and public health practice to prevent obesity and other nutrition-related diseases. Her work emphasizes developing and implementing practical, evidence-based interventions that improve child health in real-world settings. Hendel’s current research seeks to understand how program staffing models and training policies can be improved to better promote the mental and physical health and wellbeing of youth and their families.
In bestowing the award, the University highlighted Hendel’s work with community partners. “Research-based interventions only improve child health when they can be implemented and sustained in real-world settings,” the University stated. “Katherine Hendel works with community partners like schools and public health agencies to create pediatric nutrition and physical activity programs that balance scientific effectiveness with practical feasibility. She also works with existing evidence-based programs, like WIC, to help them reach more families and deliver lasting benefits for children’s nutrition and health.”
In a letter nominating Hendel for the award, SPH Mayo Professor and Division of Epidemiology & Community Health Division Head Lisa Harnack, wrote that “Dr. Hendel’s focus on families and adolescents most affected by obesity and chronic disease ensures that her work has real-world relevance and benefit. She represents the very best of the next generation of scholars. Her independent, innovative, and imaginative work holds great promise for advancing knowledge, informing practice, and shaping healthier, more equitable communities.”
The McKnight Land-Grant Professorship program is intended to strengthen the University’s faculty by advancing the careers of individuals with strong potential to make significant contributions to their disciplines and to the institution. Award recipients hold the designation of McKnight Land-Grant Professor for a two-year period and receive a research grant of $25,000 in each year of that appointment.
