Barbara Fiese, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Human Development & Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana

Barbara H. Fiese, Ph.D., is a clinical and developmental psychologist whose research focuses on family factors that promote health and wellbeing in children. From 2008-2020 she held the Pampered Chef, Ltd., Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and was Director of the Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with affiliated appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychology. She is considered one of the national experts in the role that shared family mealtimes may play in promoting health.
She is a Principal Investigator or co-Investigator on multiple federally funded projects aimed at examining environmental and biological factors contributing to early nutritional health including the STRONG Kids2 Project which takes a cell-to-community approach to dietary habits from birth and the ITOPP program, an innovative transdisciplinary MPH/PhD training program in obesity prevention. She is also the PI on several projects aimed at increasing the efficiencies of summer and after school feeding programs for food insecure children and youth.
She is Past-President of the Society of Family Psychology, Editor of the Journal of Family Psychology, and Inaugural Editor of Advances in Child and Family Policy and Practice.
Research Interests:
Food Security
