Helen Chipman, Ph.D., RDN
Helen Chipman, PhD, RDN, serves as National Program Leader for Food and Nutrition Education at USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). With an emphasis on low-income nutrition education, Dr. Chipman administers the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), liaisons with the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and other partners on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed), and co-administers FNS and NIFA’s recently funded SNAP and EFNEP: Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Regional Centers of Excellence (RNECE) Initiative.
Through these programs and other responsibilities, Dr. Chipman fosters shared understanding across organizational systems and structures. She led the development and implementation of a socio‐ecological framework for nutrition education, a national online program monitoring, evaluation, and reporting system, and paraprofessional core competencies. She oversees data aggregation and national reporting for EFNEP, the nation’s first federal nutrition education program for low-income populations. With FNS partners, she co-leads SNAP-Ed and EFNEP program implementation research on direct education, messaging, and policy, systems, and environmental change.
Prior to her Federal appointment, Dr. Chipman had similar program administrative and research responsibilities as an extension specialist and professor at South Dakota State University. Dr. Chipman is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. She received her PhD in Food Science and Human Nutrition from Colorado State University.