Sarah Messiah, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Messiah has published extensively in two main areas of research (1) the epidemiological investigation of risk factors for childhood obesity and cardiometabolic disease biomarkers with emphasis on ethnic and racial disparities; and (2) the implementation of evidence-based practices into clinical and community settings to prevent and treat childhood obesity and metabolic syndrome. She has authored and edited two books, eleven chapters, over 280 original research papers and 300 scientific abstracts. She has served as a Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator or Intervention Specialist on >30 federal (National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Services Research Administration) awards and private foundation sources totaling > $40 million (excluding the $65 million National Children’s Study). She was the recipient of the 2011 Micah Batchelor Award for Excellence in Children’s Health Research ($300,000), the 2012 Miami Dade County Commissioners’ Women Leadership Award for Science and Technology, the 2014 C.W. Chuck Pezoldt Award for outstanding community service, and a 2016 outstanding abstract prize at Obesity Week. She is a top cited expert in obesity with an H index of 39 and an i10-index of 141.

Scholarship Area #1.  Dr. Messiah’s career has focused on the population prevalence of health-related comorbidities associated with pediatric obesity and severe obesity. Her doctoral dissertation documented the extent of the metabolic syndrome in childhood, and the disproportionate burden on race/ethnic minority groups. Her dissertation publications in the Journal of Pediatrics and Obesity (Silver Spring) were some of the first to document these pediatric population health trends. Her interest in population-level pediatric severe obesity has led to key publications in the pediatric bariatric surgery literature as well, including in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, Annals of Surgery, and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. She has also published on the race/ethnic group disparities and bariatric utilization and outcomes in adolescents and adults in JAMA Pediatrics and JAMA Network Open among others. Her research in this area, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted bariatric patients has been highlighted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIMHD).

Scholarship Area #2. Dr. Messiah is also internationally known for her dissemination and implementation of interventions to prevent childhood obesity among vulnerable groups in preschools, elementary schools, and afterschool settings. She has been a Principal Investigator of USDA and HRSA-funded research to implement obesity prevention strategies in childcare centers that have led to recognition by the Bipartisan Policy Center for its attention to center-level environmental and policy change (Contemporary Clin Trials). This work has led over two dozen publications in journals such as the American Journal of Health Promotion and the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She has also received international notoriety for her unique partnership with the Miami Dade County Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces to develop and implement the park-based Fit2Play afterschool program to promote childhood healthy weight and cardiometabolic health. Her team’s research findings, documented in > two dozen publications were the first to document biomedical health benefits of park-based afterschool programming over 5 year in Preventive Medicine. This program gained the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama, and in 2014, a Miami Dade County Park was chosen to announce the partnership of her Let’s Move program with the National Recreation and Parks Association. Additionally, Fit2Play was a cornerstone achievement in Miami Dade County securing the 2016 Culture of Health prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is the National Recreation and Park Association’s model of excellence to promote healthy weight in children across the nation.

Dr. Messiah has served as an expert advisor to promote childhood healthy cardiometabolic health with numerous national organizations, including the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children, The University of Tennessee’s Maternal and Child Health Advisory Board, the American Heart Association’s Policy Recommendations for Obesity Prevention and Health Promotion in Child Care Settings, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and World Urban Parks. She is currently the National Chair of The Obesity Society’s annual planning committee after serving as the Chair of the Population Health Track for 2 years. She is a Fellow of the Obesity Society and a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and has mentored over 4 dozen graduate students, fellows and faculty over her career.