Associate Professor

Dr. Meredith Niles is an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont and also teaches and advises in the food systems program.  Meredith also serves as the Associate Director of the Food Systems Research Center at UVM, a joint multi-million dollar effort with the USDA Agricultural Research Service focused on local and regional food systems.  Prior to her academic career, Meredith worked for the United States Department of State in HIV/AIDS public health and for several food and environmental non-profit organizations. 

Meredith thrives conducting applied research that can help bring together diverse stakeholders- from farm to federal agency- to help solve pressing problems facing our world's food system.  Meredith is an interdisciplinary food systems scientist whose research focuses on advancing efforts to achieve sustainable food security and improve health and environmental outcomes from food systems. Her primary areas of focus include sustainable food production with farmers and food and nutritional security during crises, including climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Meredith is deeply committed to ensuring academic research is available to the public and stakeholders to meet a land-grant mission, evidenced through policy briefs and open science principles.  Meredith has received notable honors and recognition for her research, most recently being named an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar for 2022-2025 by the National Academy of Medicine.

Research and/or Creative Works

Meredith has two primary areas of interest related to sustainable food security, which overlap with several current and future research efforts:

  1. Ensuring Sustainable Food Production: Meredith works with farmers and farm organizations to understand why farmers adopt best management and sustainable practices.  She has worked in this area since her PhD, and has examined farmer’s adoption of climate adaptation and mitigation practices, water management, nitrogen and manure management, and cover crops.
  2. Food and Nutritional Security during Crises: Meredith’s previous and current work examines how climate change will affect food access, especially for low-income populations, women and children.  More recently, Meredith lead a national effort, The National Food Access and COVID research Team (NFACT), a national research consortium of more than 18 study sites in 16 states (www.nfactresearch.org) to examine the food access and food security impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among marginalized populations.

Publications

  • Moore, Maya, Alpaugh, M., Razafindrina, K., Trubek, A., Niles, M.T. (2022). Finding food in the hunger season: A mixed methods approach to understanding wild plant foods in relation to food security and dietary diversity in southeastern Madagascar. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 28
  • Brassard Wirkkala, K., Bertmann, F., Belarmino, E.H., Niles, M.T. (2022). The fruits of labor: Home food procurement and mental health in the time of COVID-19.  Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition.
  • McCarthy, A., Belarmino, E., Bertmann, F., Niles, M.T. (2022). Food Security Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Evidence from a Cohort of Adults in Vermont during the First Year.  Nutrients 14, no. 7: 1358.
  • Rodríguez-Cruz, L.A., Álvarez-Berríos, N., Niles, M.T. (2022). Social-ecological interactions in a disaster context: Puerto Rican farmer households’ food security after Hurricane Maria.  Environmental Research Letters.
  • Niles, M.T., et al. A multi-site analysis of the prevalence of food security in the United States, before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (2021). Current Developments in Nutrition. Volume 5, Issue 12, nzab135
  • Nicholson, C., Emery, B.F., Niles, M.T. (2021). Global relationships between crop diversity and nutritional stability.  Nature Communications.12: 5310.
  • Bertmann, F., Rogomentich, K. , Belarmino, E.H., Niles, M.T. (2021). The Food Bank and Food Pantries Help Food Insecure Participants Maintain Fruit and Vegetable Intake During COVID-19. Frontiers in Nutrition. 8, 510.
  • Rodriguez-Cruz, L., Moore, M., Niles, M.T. (2021). Puerto Rican Farmers’ Obstacles Towards Recovery and Adaptation Strategies after Hurricane Maria: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Adaptive Capacity.  Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 5:22.
  • Gisbert-Queral, M., Henningsen, A., Niles, M.T., Kebreab, E., Tigden, A.J., Mueller, N.D. (2021). Climate impacts and adaptation in US dairy systems.  Nature Food. 2, 894–901.
  • Snider, M.A., Ziegler, S.E., Darby, H.M., Soder, K.J., Brito, A.F., Beidler, B., Flack, S., Greenwood, S.L., Niles, M.T. 2021. An overview of organic, grassfed dairy farm management and factors related to higher milk production. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems,1-9.
  • Clements, R., Birthisel, S.K., Daigneault, A., Gallandt, E., Johnson, D., Wentworth, T., Niles, M.T.  (2021). Climate change in the context of whole-farming systems: opportunities for improved outreach. Climatic Change. 166: 40.
  • Niles, M.T., Wirkkala Brassard, K., Belarmino, E.H., Bertmann F. (2021). Home food procurement impacts food security and diet quality during COVID-19.  BMC Public Health.  21: 945.

Awards and Recognition

Associations and Affiliations

  • Board of Directors, Public Library of Science
  • Board of Directors, Rural Vermont
  • Associations- Ecological Society of America, Agronomy Soil and Crop Science Societies
Meredith NIles, Associate Professor

Areas of Expertise and/or Research

  • Food Systems Sustainability
  • Food Policy
  • Food Security
  • Farmer Behavior
  • Social-Ecological Systems

Education

  • PhD, Ecology, University of California, Davis, 2014
  • BA, Political Science, Honors in Environmental Studies, The Catholic University of America, 2005

CV

PDF icon MT_Niles_CV.pdf

Contact

Email:

mtniles@uvm.edu

Phone:
  • 802-656-4337
Office Location:

355 MLS Carrigan Wing

Office Hours:

by appointment

Website(s):
  1. Meredith Niles' Website
  2. Food Insecurity and Covid-19 Research Page

Courses Taught