Dr. Gordon-Larsen is an obesity epidemiologist interested in patterns of determinants of obesity, diet, physical activity, and inactivity. Her National Institutes of Health-funded research looks at relationships between environmental factors (such as availability of parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, and community design) and physical activity, diet, obesity, and obesity-related co-morbidities. She is also conducting research related to individual, genetic susceptibility to environmental factors. She has special interest in social inequality and health disparities. She works with data on US adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a longitudinal study of over 20,000 US adolescents followed over 13 years and with the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, a longitudinal study of over 5,000 US adults followed over 20 years. Dr. Gordon-Larsen is a member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, The Obesity Society, and the Population Association of America. She is currently a Council Member of The Obesity Society and is on the editorial boards of Obesity, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and Annals of Human Biology.

Chair, Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) Degree Committee