Rudd Center Leaves Yale and ISPS
The Rudd Center has officially announced its move to the University of Connecticut, Storrs. The research center has been a leader in food policy, obesity prevention and weight stigma and has gained a national reputation for being one of the most effective nonprofits working on nutrition, particularly for school aged children. The Center was started in 2005 by then Yale Professor of Psychology Kelly Brownell, a renowned expert on obesity and food politics, and was funded primarily through the Rudd Foundation, founded by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Leslie Rudd.
In the move to the University of Connecticut, the Rudd Center sees an opportunity to enhance its growth by locating it within the agricultural school, as well as an entire department of agricultural economists.
The Rudd Center has been under the auspices of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies since July 2013 when Kelly Brownell left for Duke to become Dean of Sanford School of Public Policy, and Marlene Schwartz became director of the center. Of the move to UConn, Jacob Hacker, the director of ISPS said, “All of us here at ISPS wish the wonderful thinkers and doers at Rudd the very best at UConn. Rudd is one of the most successful examples of engaged academic work that Yale has ever seen. We have learned immensely from its example, and we hope to work closely with it in the coming years.”