Tarra Penney
Assistant Professor
Faculty & School/Dept.
Faculty of Health - School of Kinesiology & Health Science - School of Global Health
Degrees
BSc - 2007
Dalhousie University
Canada
MA - 2013
Dalhousie University
Canada
PhD - 2017
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
Biography
Tarra Penney, PhD is a population health scientist focused on disease prevention, an assistant professor of policy evaluation in Global Health, an investigator with the Global Strategy Lab and a member of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at York University.
Dr. Penney returns to Canada after serving as a Research Associate at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, UK supporting an evaluation of a nation-wide policy to reduce sugar in soft drinks and prevent disease. She completed her PhD at the same department in epidemiology and public health with a focus on local food availability and population level diet and obesity prevention, funded by the Cambridge Trusts. Prior to her PhD, she studied cognitive psychology and computer science, completed a CIHR funded Master’s degree in health promotion, and published in the area of obesity prevention with a focus on population health intervention research as a Research Associate at the Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University, Canada.
She has worked with national and international organisations in the area of food system transition to prevent disease and improve health including Cambridge Global Food Security - an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge, the Global Food Security Programme in London, UK and the WHO European office. Dr. Penney has also contributed to program evaluation review panels for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to support assessment of research quality and program impact.
Twitter: @TarraPenney
Affiliations
Trinity College, University of Cambridge
Post-doctoral alumni
European Public Health Association
Member
Society for Social Medicine and Population Health
Member
International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity
Member
International Public Policy Association
Member
Service/Community Activities
BMC Public Health - Global health
Associate Editor
BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health
Reviewer
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Reviewer
IJBNPA
Editoral Board
The Lancet Planetary Health
Reviewer
Supervision
Currently available to supervise graduate students: Yes
Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: No
Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: Yes
Current Research
Dr Penney’s program of research focuses on examining the impact of globalization on human and planetary health through studying the consequences of national policies implemented within complex political, social and commercial systems. Specifically she is focused on generating population level evidence for addressing the role that the food system plays in driving global threats to health including obesity, undernutrition, zoonoses and climate change. She uses systems thinking and draws on multiple methods from epidemiology, social and political science to evaluate national policy and explore opportunities within the commercial sector to transition toward healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems. Tarra is also interested in methodological aspects of generating evaluative evidence for undersstanding the consequences of policy change. In particular, developing transdisciplinary approaches to understand how and why policies work or fail to improve policy learning, reduce the potential for epistemic errors and build and maintain public trust in science.
Research Projects
Chronic disease prevention at the global level: Supporting regional capacity building for systems thinking in practice
Role: Principal Investigator
Amount funded: $39,850
Year Funded: 2020
Duration: 2
Funded by: Other...
Other funding: World Health Orgnisation European Office
Evaluating the Governance of Emergent Pandemic Zoonoses: A Systems and Legal Analysis of Wildlife Markets
Role: CoInvestigator
Amount funded: $$446,912
Year Funded: 2020
Duration: 2
Funded by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Evidence for healthy, sustainable diets: multi-country analysis of dietary intake, policy instruments and the role of the commercial sector
Role: Principal Investigator
Amount funded: $60,000
Year Funded: 2019
Duration: 2
Funded by: York University
International food policy study: Evaluating the impact of food labelling, marketing, and fiscal nutrition policies
Role: CoInvestigator
Amount funded: $3,915,000
Year Funded: 2019
Duration: 5
Funded by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Local food availability, diet and obesity: Development and empirical testing of a complex theory
Role: Principal Investigator
Amount funded: $170,000
Year Funded: 2013
Duration: 3
Funded by: Other...
Other funding: Cambridge Trusts
Low-agency population interventions and policy options to reduce meat consumption: a systematic review and critical interpretive synthesis
Role: Principal Investigator
Amount funded: $8,500
Year Funded: 2018
Funded by: Other...
Other funding: Global Food Security
Understanding diet behaviour within the context of the modern food environment
Role: Principal Investigator
Amount funded: $39,850
Year Funded: 2011
Duration: 2
Funded by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research