Pediatric Obesity & Health Behavior
A Pennington Biomedical Research Center Laboratory
A Pennington Biomedical Research Center Laboratory
Pennington Biomedical Scientific Retreat
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Priyanka Chaudhary, presented data at the May 2025 Pennington Biomedical Research Center's scientific retreat.
KC-More Seminar Series at KUMC
Dr. Amanda Staiano was invited to speak at The University of Kansas Medical Center on April 25, 2025 for the KC-More Seminar Series. Her presentation was titled, "Harnessing Screens to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Weight Practices in Youth".
Pennington Biomedical Research Center Scientific Symposium, "Disseminating and Implementing the Science of Child Obesity Treatment and Prevention"
Dr. Amanda Staiano was a Co-Chair for Pennington Biomedical's Spring Symposium that took place March 31-April 1, 2025 at Lod Cook Conference Center. The symposium included internationally renowned experts who were presenters, their invited guests as discussants, postdoctoral fellows, and industry and sponsor representatives. Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Katie Spring, was a session chair for the session "Prevention in the Early Years".
STEAM Day at Wildwood Elementary
Two members of the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Lab, including pictured research specialist Ethan Abbenante, attended the Wildwood Elementary STEAM Day in March 2025 alongside local businesses and industries. Elementary age children had the opportunity to participate in exergaming demonstrations and learn about Dr. Amanda Staiano's exciting research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. This event allowed members of our lab to showcase Pennington Biomedical and foster community relationships with schools.
Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Lab Hosts Our
Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital Residents
Dr. Amanda Staiano and members of the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Lab invited Pediatric Residents from the Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital to tour Pennington Biomedical Research Center on June 28, 2024.
Louisiana Psychological Association 2024 Spring Conference
Research Specialist, Ethan Abbenante, presented his research "SUNRISE Study: Relationships Among Executive Function, Physical Activity, and Motor Skill Competency in Preschool Children" at the Louisiana Psychological Association 2024 Spring Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, with mentorship from Dr. Alyssa Button and Dr. Staiano.
LSU Discovery Day 2024
Student Worker, Ethan Abbenante, presented his research,
"Adolescents' Perceived Neighborhood Safety: Relationsip with Visceral Adipose Tissue and Cholesterol"
at LSU Discover Day with mentorship from Dr. Alyssa Button and Dr. Staiano.
ObesityWeek 2023 Annual Conference hosted by The Obesity Society
Postdoctoral Researcher Alyssa Button, PhD presented two posters titled "Associations of demographic and social determinants of health with level of obesity in a pragmatic pediatric weight management intervention" and "Validation of remote and in-person child weight and height measurements within a pragmatic family-based weight management trial."
Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference 2023
Lab Manager Natalie Malek and Project Manager Lauren Himel presented the TEAM UP Study findings with a poster titled "Pediatric Recruitment in the Primary Care Setting for a Pragmatic Child Weight Management Research Study: Successes and Challenges".
LSU Discovery Day 2023
Student Worker Ethan Abbenante presented his research,
"Adolescent Blood Pressure: Relationships with BMI Percentile, Sleep Duration, and Household Chaos"
at LSU Discover Day with mentorship from Dr. Alyssa Button and Dr. Staiano.
Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
In September 2022, Dr. Amanda Staiano and Dr. Alyssa Button are interviewed by Dr. Adrain Conrad for Senator Barrow's "InSight Rouge" radio show, sharing information for childhood obesity awareness month.
First Annual Childhood Obesity Day
at the Louisiana State Capitol
Dr. Amanda Staiano joins researchers and policy makers in the Louisiana state capitol to advocate for recognition of medical professionals and their efforts to prevent and combat childhood obesity in Louisiana on June 7, 2021.
Testifying before the Louisiana Senate
Dr. Amanda Staiano provided witness expert testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children in June 2021 to promote Childhood Obesity Awareness month
and to highlight policy
recommendations to move the needle on the child obesity epidemic. Click here.
Annual L.Y.F.E. Line Teen Summit
Lab member Abigail Randolph (center) participated in the Third Annual L.Y.F.E. Line Teen Summit to recruit for our pediatric studies.
LSU Discover Day 2020
LSU Discover Day Awardees, Sai Pochana and Gracie Wilburn, presented data from the "TIGERKids" project at LSU Discover Day in April 2020. Congratulations, Sai and Gracie!
LSU Discover Day 2019
Beatriz Fernandes-Coelho presents data from
the "Pause & Play" project at
LSU Discover Day in April 2019.
Elizabeth Joseph also presented data
from her undergraduate honors thesis.
Congratulations, Bea and Lizzie!
2019 Health Summit:
Working Together for Louisiana Children and Families
The Pediatric Obesity & Health Behavior Lab was happy to participate in the Planning Committee of the 2019 Health Summit, hosted by the Louisiana Center for Health Equity and held at Pennington Biomedical on April 2, 2019.
Dr. Staiano moderated a panel on Promoting Healthy Living with speakers (from left) Kenyatta Royal, Senior Youth Engagement Coordinator for Tobacco Free Living, Louisiana Public Health Institute; Dr. Jessica Kemp, Vice President of Center for Planning Excellence; Principal Donald J. Sanders, III, of Raintree Elementary in St. Mary Parish; and Superintendent Wes Watts of West Baton Rouge Schools.
The Obesity Society's ObesityWeek
Scientific Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, November 2018
Dr. Chelsea Kracht presented data on
demographic differences in meeting 24-hour
guidelines by young children from the Pause &
Play study at The Obesity Society's annual
conference.
TIGER Kids data were also presented in three
poster presentations by Dr. Amanda Staiano,
Dr. Nicole Fearnbach, and Dr. Maura Kepper on
behalf of Kara Denstel.
LSUHSC Medical Student Research Day
New Orleans, Louisiana, October 2018
LSUHSC MD/MPH candidate Nicole Dominique won 2nd place in the annual LSUHSC School of Medicine's Medical Student Research Day in New Orleans in October 2018. Nicole was an instrumental team member for the Project Power camp, co-sponsored by American Diabetes Association and American Council on Exercise for children at risk for type 2 diabetes. Congrats to Nicole on this honor!
LSU Discover Day 2018
LSU Ogden Honors College junior
Elizabeth Joseph presents focus group data from the "Pause & Play" project at LSU Discovery Day in April 2018. Elizabeth also presented an oral and poster presentation at the Society of Behavioral Medicine annual conference in New Orleans in April 2018.
Teddy visited 10 childcare
centers in Baton Rouge for our
Pause & Play Study!
GameSquad Featured
on the LSU Jumbotron at the LSU
Football Game!
Click here to check out the feature.
Childhood Obesity Treatment:
A Toolkit for Louisiana Primary Care Providers
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that clinicians screen children aged 6 years and older for obesity and offer them or refer them to comprehensive, intensive behavioral intervention to promote improvement in weight status. Baptist Community Ministries and Pennington Biomedical Research Center provide the following toolkit as a summary of best practices to assist primary care providers in providing preventive and treatment services for childhood obesity. Click here to access the toolkit.
Project Manager Arwen Marker, Dr. Staiano, and Health E. Hound
Recruiting for Klub Kinect at Broadmoor High School Health Fair
PANTHER Project
Physical Activity and Nutrition for Teen Health (PANTHER) Project
Pennington Biomedical is proud to partner with Health Centers in Schools and Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to deliver PANTHER, a school-based physical activity and dietary counseling program designed by Pennington Biomedical scientists and delivered to a local public high school in an under-resourced neighborhood in north Baton Rouge. The PANTHER Project is intended to train staff and refine logistics of program delivery for future school-based pediatric weight loss and wellness studies. PANTHER adapts the Diabetes Prevention Program to the audience of teenagers, providing a condensed and teen-friendly curriculum delivered in a group-based setting via the school-based health center. Preventive Medicine fitness trainers under the supervision of Dr Amanda Staiano deliver physical activity sessions twice per week, and registered dietitians under the supervision of Dr. Cathy Champagne deliver weekly dietary counseling sessions and a family trip to the grocery store. The main outcomes are changes in BMI percentile, walking endurance, health behavior, and health knowledge. Information gathered from this pilot program will be reported to the funding agency and used to design future research studies. Funding was provided by the WebMD Foundation to the Health Centers in Schools.
Leighanne Kiggans, Alexandra Gillio, Dr. Staiano, Erma Levy, and Brooke Bayham
Celebrating the PANTHER Program at Glen Oaks High School
LSU College of Agriculture
In January 2015, we entertained a group of LSU College of Agriculture students by giving a tour of the TReCC, providing details on our pediatric exercise trials, and even doing a "Dance Off" in our exergaming room. To the right, "Gaming Coach" and preventive medicine research specialist Cory Lemon dances with two of our LSU guests.
Camp Quest
In June 2014, our team from Pennington Biomedical was excited to deliver a physical activity and dietary lesson to the students at Camp Quest, a summer camp for elementary school children that focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math. Lab members Courtney Wright and Cullen Hodges, along with Preventive Medicine fitness trainer Matt Abboud, adapted lessons from the PANTHER project to show the campers how research is used to teach positive behaviors for life-long health. Camp Quest is a collaboration between the Interdenominational Faith Assembly and Solvay, a chemical corporation with a branch in Baton Rouge. Click here to read a news article about Camp Quest.
Dr. Staiano and Arwen Marker recruit participants for Klub Kinect at the
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service at Southern University, January 2014
Community Engagement and Outreach
Reducing Childhood Obesity in Louisiana
An Evidence-based Approach to Inform Policy Decisions
Professional Engagement and Outreach
Dr. Staiano joined Dr. Martin Binks and other members of The
Obesity Society and Obesity Action Coalition to lobby on
Capitol Hill for the "Treat and Reduce Obesity Act" in
September 2013.
Mission: Through research, education and advocacy, to better
understand, prevent, and treat obesity and improve the lives of those
affected.
Dr. Staiano serves as Co-Chair of the Public Affairs Committee and as
elected fellow of the Pediatric Obesity Section for The Obesity Society.
PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, is funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) with the vision to increase the amount of information available to healthcare decision makers and the speed at which it is generated in order to help patients and their caregivers make better-informed decisions. Dr. Staiano serves as task force member of the Obesity Task Force for PCORnet. Read more about PCORnet here.
Games for Health is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the
development, use, and applications of game technology for improving physical and
mental health and well-being. The Journal breaks new ground as the first to address
this emerging, widely-recognized, and increasingly adopted area of healthcare. The
journal is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Tom Baranowski, Ph.D.,
Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Staiano serves on the editorial board. Read more
about Games for Health Journal here.