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CSDE Research Areas:

• Environments and Populations
• Health of People and Populations
• Wellbeing of Families and Households

In the News:

• 15 CSDE Affiliates Part of 9 Teams Receiving UW Population Health Initiative Awards (6/26/2020)
• CSDE Affiliates Awarded PHI COVID-19 Grants (5/2/2020)
• CSDE Affiliates Co-Author Two Minimum Wage Ordinance Studies (2/15/2019)
• CSDE Affiliates Hill, Otten, and Buszkiewicz Examine Health Effects of Minimum Wage Policy (2/15/2020)
• Heather Hill, Jennifer Otten, and Noah Seixas Find High Rates of Depression Among Child Care Workers (7/17/2019)
• Jennifer Otten Investigates What Businesses and Anti-Hunger Agencies Think of Local Governments’ Efforts to Manage Food Waste (10/26/2018)
• Jennifer Otten Researches the Health Impacts of Diet Beverages (9/3/2018)
• Jennifer Otten, Jake Vigdor, and Mark Long Analyze Effects of Minimum Wage on Seattle Food Prices (9/26/2017)
• Livable City Year Kickoff (9/27/2016)
• Population Health Initiative COVID-19 Grants Catalyzed UW Research Community (3/23/2021)
• The Seattle Times Features Jennifer Otten’s Study on Minimal Wage Ordinance and Childcare Costs (2/12/2019)
• New Research from Otten and Co-Authors Explores COVID-Driven Policy Changes to WIC in Washington (4/11/2022)
• Otten Releases New Research on Work-Related Factors Associated with Health and Well-Being for Early Care and Education Workers (4/2/2023)

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Jennifer Otten is an Associate Professor in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and affiliated with the Nutritional Sciences Program and UW Center for Public Health Nutrition. Dr. Otten received her BS in Nutritional Sciences from Texas A&M University, her MS in Nutrition Communications from Tufts University, her PhD in Animal, Nutrition, and Food Sciences from the University of Vermont, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in the Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her dietetic internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Between 1998-2006, Dr. Otten served in various capacities for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., including as a study director and as the organization’s first communications director.

Her research interests include the impacts of public health, nutrition, and food policies and the policy process on health behaviors and health outcomes; food systems, as it relates to food and nutrition policy; and understanding and improving the ways in which research gets to the public policy table.