Sara Bleich, PhD

Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management 
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Bleich is an External Collaborator with the Global Obesity Prevention Center. Her research broadly examines the intersection between public policy and obesity prevention/control with a specific focus on: the drivers of obesity, disparities in physician practice patterns of obesity care, and novel environmental strategies to reduce caloric intake.

Sara is the past recipient of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality traineeship, a Harvard Graduate Prize Fellowship, a Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences dissertation completion fellowship, an award for “most outstanding abstract” at the International Conference on Obesity in Sydney, Australia, and best research manuscript in the journal Obesity, awarded by The Obesity Society. Sara is the recipient of a K01 Career Development Award from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the NIH and multiple Healthy Eating Research grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Bleich was recently appointed as a White House Fellow (2015-2016) where she was a Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative.

Sara holds degrees from Columbia (BA, Psychology) and Harvard (PhD, Health Policy).

For more information see here.

Representative Publications:

• Bleich SN, Wolfson JA, Jarlenski MP (2014). Calorie changes in chain restaurant menu items:  Implications for obesity and evaluations of menu labeling. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In press.
• Bleich SN, Barry CL, Gary-Webb TL, Herring BJ. Reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by providing caloric information:  How black adolescents alter their purchases and whether the Effects Persist. American Journal of Public Health. 104(12):2417-24.
• Bleich SN, Wolfson JA, Vine S, Wang YCW (2014). Heavy adults who drink diet beverages consume more calories from food than heavy adults who drink sugary beverages. American Journal of Public Health. 104(3):e72-8.
• Bleich SN, Rutkow L (2013). Improving obesity prevention at the local level – emerging opportunities. New England Journal of Medicine. 368:1761-1763..
• Bleich SN, Bennett WL, Gudzune KA, Cooper LA (2012). Impact of physician body mass index on obesity care and beliefs. Obesity. 20(5):999-1005.

For a full publications list see here.