Research Description
Commmunity Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
Food Environment and Access to Healthy Foods
Health Inequity
Mulitlevel Intervention Evaluation
Childhood Obesity
Health Promotion and Health Education
Biography
Improving healthier lifestyles through multilevel intervention research is an area in which Ms. Dombrowski has had extensive experience, including implementing and evaluating a large, school-based wellness initiative within Chicago Public Schools (CPS), called Healthy CPS. Through Healthy CPS, low-income, urban schools have been able to make significant strides in improving their healthy school environments. Ms. Dombrowski's role in the evaluation of Healthy CPS included assessing overall change in student weight, nutrition, physical activity, tobacco use and social emotional wellness.
Prior to working on Healthy CPS, Ms. Dombrowski also co-directed a national obesity prevention initiative with the Cook County Department of Public Health that facilitated policy and systems change in communities, schools, corner stores and hospitals to support healthy eating and active living. Ms. Dombrowski also led the evaluation of the corner store component of this project to assess effective implementation of the intervention.
Ms. Dombrowki is currently evaluating implementation of the Comprehensive and Coordinated Health Education pilot project in Chicago Public Schools. Her dissertation focus includes understanding the role that healthy corner stores play in facilitating health promotion within their community.