Happy Holidays from the STRIDE team!

Dear STRIDE Family,

It’s been a whirlwind quarter, filled with a lot of activity and exciting new projects. The quarter began early when a STRIDE team was featured on a local NPR station highlighting our research and programs. Way to go, team! 

We have a number of new additions, the first of whom, Oliver Claus Heaney, arrived on May 14, weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces. Congratulations and welcome to the world little guy! We’re also happy to have our wonderful coordinator Casey Heaney back from maternity leave. Oliver is already a regular at STRIDE, bringing his dad Wayne to visit frequently. 

If you visit the STRIDE offices, you’ll meet many more additions to the STRIDE family, including Christine Hackman, a new professor in the Kinesiology Department. Welcome Christine! You’ll also run into our new Health Ambassador and A-Team members coordinating activities with students and community partners. 

Speaking of community partners, our friends at the Orfalea Fund School Food Initiative funded several new Pink and Dude Chefs programs in Northern Santa Barbara County, which are facilitated by two STRIDE nutrition graduate students. 

One of our biggest projects this quarter was hosting the Cal Poly STRIDE – UC Berkeley School of Public Health Joint Obesity Symposium in October. This event was an activity-filled day packed with information and opportunities for networking, and I am pleased to report that it exceeded expectations in every way. Nearly 50 participants represented a diversity of disciplines from both institutions. 

That’s just a taste of our activities and exciting new activities, which you can read about in this newsletter. If you can stop by the offices sometime, please do! 

Thanks for making it a great 2015 and best wishes for an even better 2016. 

Aydin Nazmi