Dr Sara Long

ow the UK school food service fairs in a good food revolution and in a global school food context

Dr Sara Long (PhD) is interested in improving health, wellbeing and education outcomes of children and young people. She has led research projects on several major policy priorities spanning public health, social sciences, education, psychology and medicine. 

Sara completed her doctoral studies in 2013 in Psychology and Nutrition. Her studies focussed on the impacts of nutrition on psychological outcomes, and on socioecological factors that influence food choice and healthy eating. Since then, she has led on and contributed to a range of major public health research projects, with a particular focus on school health and wellbeing. Most recently, she is leading an implementation evaluation of a major policy initiative that brings together social sciences, school food and nutrition and the psychology of food choice. Sara has taught at Welsh universities for over 15 years in the areas of public health, social sciences, education, psychology and medicine.

Dr Long has a track record in research around health behaviours and outcomes, yet she appreciates that the issues we are facing as a society cannot be fixed by focussing solely on determinants at the individual level. Rather, we must take a complex systems approach and seek to understand health determinants, behaviours and outcomes through multiple levels and angles – economic, political, organisational, social, familial, and finally individual – and notably, particularly important is the interactions between these levels.