SRPH Dr. Sharkey promotion

Joseph Sharkey, Ph.D., M.P.H., RD, has been promoted to professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health. Dr. Sharkey chairs the Healthy Food Advisory Committee established by the Texas Legislature to study the retail availability of healthy foods in underserved areas of Texas. He also serves as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded Texas Healthy Aging Research Network (TxHAN) Collaborating Center, the CDC-funded Texas Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (TxNOPREN) Collaborating Center, and the Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities.

Dr. Sharkey’s research interests include food access and food choice in rural and underserved areas, measurement of household and neighborhood food environments, and nutritional and functional assessment. He is currently principal investigator on three interdisciplinary research programs that examine complex, place-based factors that may either enable or constrain rural families from achieving and maintaining good nutritional health.

Dr. Sharkey received his Ph.D. and M.P.H. in Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from Texas A&M University and a B.A. in Political Science from The University of Texas.