Associate Professor
California Polytechnic State University
Dr. Alison Ventura is a Professor of Kinesiology and Public Health at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also Director of the Cal Poly Healthy Kids Lab and Associate Director of Research Training and Fellowship for the Cal Poly Center for Health Research. Dr. Ventura holds a PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from the Pennsylvania State University, two MS degrees from the Pennsylvania State University: one in Nutritional Sciences and the other in Human Development and Family Studies, and a BS in Psychology with an emphasis in Biology and a minor in Community Nutrition from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Ventura also trained as a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a taste and smell research institute in Philadelphia, PA. For the past decade, Dr. Ventura’s research has primarily focused on infant feeding interactions and understanding how these interactions shape dietary preferences, eating behaviors, and growth trajectories during infancy and early childhood. She is particularly interested in the bidirectional influences between parents and children – that is, how parents’ beliefs and practices influence children’s behavior and development, as well as how children’s characteristics and behaviors influence parents’ beliefs and practices. Much of Dr. Ventura’s recent work focuses on the promotion of responsive feeding during breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, and the introduction to complementary foods and beverages.