CPHAR Fellows Biographical Information

Joseph Sharkey

CPHAR Research Area

Having defended his dissertation in August 2002, Joseph Sharkey was our first CPHAR Predoctoral Fellow to be awarded a Ph.D. His research, "The Nutrition and Function Study" (NAFS), was a university-community collaborative project between the School of Public Health and the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Programs' Home-Delivered Meals Services in four North Carolina Counties. The primary objective of the NAFS was to examine prospectively the influence of dietary intake on incident and prevalent functional limitations and disability among a probability sample of home-delivered meal recipients.

As a CPHAR Predoctoral Fellow, Dr. Sharkey conducted nutritional assessment workshops for the North Carolina Division of Aging, Triangle J COG, NCAOA, and individual nutrition service providers. In addition, he was selected to participate on the Issue Panel for Dietary Reference Intakes and Dietary Guidelines in Older Americans Act Nutrition Programs. One of the oral papers he presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting was awarded an Honorable Mention for the Aetna Susan B. Anthony Award for Excellence in Research on Older Women and Public Health from the Gerontological Health Section, American Public Health Association.

Dr. Sharkey's faculty supervisor in the training program was Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD. Dr. Busby-Whitehead also served on Dr. Sharkey's dissertation committee and on the Steering Committee for the training program. Other members of Dr. Sharkey's Advisory Committee were Pamela Haines, Dr.PH, and Carol Giuliani, PhD. Dr. Sharkey was elected into the Delta Omega honorary society in 2003.

Current Activities and Employment

Joseph R. Sharkey, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D. is a Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health (SRPH) at The Texas A&M Health Sciences Center in College Station, Texas; Director of CDC-funded Texas Healthy Aging Research Network (TxHAN) Collaborating Center; Director of the CDC-funded Texas Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (TxNOPREN) Collaborating Center; and Director of the Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities at SRPH. He received his Masters of Public Health and Doctoral degrees from the Department of Nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health.  Dr. Sharkey is currently Principal Investigator on three interdisciplinary research programs that examine complex, place-based factors that may either enable or constrain rural and underserved families from achieving and maintaining good nutritional health: 1)  “Behavioral and Environmental Influence on Obesity: Rural Context & Race/Ethnicity,” which is a 5-year project funded as part of a new NIH/NCMHD-funded Program for Rural and Minority Health Disparities Research at SRPH; 2) Core Research Program (“Working with Rural and Underserved Communities to Promote a Healthy Food Environment” within the SRPH Center for Community Health Development, a Prevention Research Center; and 3) “Influence of Mobile Food Vendors on Food and Beverage Choices of Low-Income Mexican American Children in Texas Colonias,” funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Healthy Eating Research Program.  He also serves as Chair of the SB 343 Healthy Food Advisory Committee, Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Texas Department of Agriculture. Dr. Sharkey’s main areas of interest include food access and food choice in rural and underserved areas, measurement of household and neighborhood food environments, and nutritional and functional assessment.

Selected Publications

Griesenbeck JS, Brender JD, Sharkey JR, Steck MD, Huber JC, Rene AA, McDonald TJ, Romitti PA, Canfield M, Langlois P, Suarez L, and the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. “Maternal characteristics associated with the dietary intake of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines in U.S. women of child-bearing age: a cross-sectional study.” Environmental Health, 2010; 9:10. PMID: 20170520; PMCID: PMC2848640                   

Graham AC, Brender JD, Sharkey JR, Zhu L, Felkner M, Suarez L, and Canfield M. “Dietary Methionine Intake and Neural Tube Defects in Mexican-American Women.” Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology, 88(6):451-457. PMID: 20589914

Sisk C, Sharkey JR, McIntosh A, and Anding J. Using Multiple Household Food Inventories to Measure Food Availability in the Home over 30 Days: A Pilot Study. Nutrition Journal, 2010, 9:19. PMID: 20398314; PMCID: PMC2871260          
Akobundu U, Sahyoun NR, Sharkey JR, Netterville L. Recently Hospital-Discharged older Adults are Vulnerable and Underserved. Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly, 29(2):227-40. PMID: 20473814

Sharkey JR, Horel SA, and Dean WR. Neighborhood deprivation, vehicle ownership, and potential spatial access to a variety of fruits and vegetables in a large rural area in Texas. International Journal of Health Geographics, 2010, 9:26. PMID: 20500853; PMCID: PMC2881903                     

Sharkey JR, Johnson C, and Dean WR. Food Access and Perceptions of the Community and Household Food Environment as Correlates of Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Rural Seniors. BMC Geriatrics, 2010, 10:32. PMID: 20525208; PMCID: PMC2892496    

Dean WR, Sharkey JR, Cosgriff-Hernandez K-K, Martinez AR, Ribardo J, Puentes C. “I Can Say That We Were Healthy and Unhealthy”: Food Choice and the Reinvention of Tradition. Food, Culture and Society, 13(4):573-594.

Dean WR and Sharkey JR. Rural and Urban Differences in the Associations between Characteristics of the Community Food Environment and Fruit and Vegetable Intake. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, in press.

Smith ML, Ahn SN, Sharkey JR, Horel S, Mier, N, and Ory MG. Successful Evidence-Based Falls Prevention Programming for Older Adults: Geographic Variations. Journal of Applied Gerontology, accepted.

Johnson CM, Sharkey JR, and Dean WR. Eating Behaviors and Social Capital are Associated with Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Rural Adults. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 2010, 5(3), 302-315. PMID: 21116465

Johnson CM, Sharkey JR, McIntosh WA, and Dean WR. “I’m the Momma”: Using Photo-ellicitation to Understand Matrilineal Influence on Family Food Choice. BMC Women’s Health, 2010, 10 (1):21. PMID: 20565771; PMCID: PMC2897770      

Sharkey JR, Dean WR, St. John JA, Huber JC. Using Direct Observations on Multiple Occasions to Measure Household Food Availability among Low-Income Mexicano Residents in Texas Colonias. BMC Public Health, 2010, 10:445. PMID: 20670423; PMCID: PMC2921392.  

Ahn SN, Sharkey JR, Smith M, Ory M, Phillips C. Variations in Body Mass Index among Older Americans: The Roles of Social and Lifestyle Factors. Journal of Aging and Health, 2010 Sep 29 [Epub]. PMID: 20881105

Laditka JN, Laditka SB, Liu R, Price AE, Wu B, Friedman DB, Corwin SJ, Sharkey JR, Tseng W, Hunter R, Logsdon RG. Older Adults’ Concerns about Cognitive Health: Commonalities and Differences among Six United States Ethnic Groups. Ageing and Society, in press.

Dean WR, Sharkey JR, and St. John J.A. Pulga (Flea Market) Contributions to the Retail Food Environment of Colonias in the South Texas Border Region. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, accepted (to be published May 2011).     

Jilcott SB, Wall-Bassett ED, Moore JB, and Sharkey JR. Use of traditional and non-traditional food venues among female participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 2010, 6 (1), in press.