Our Experience
How do we measure the impact of interventions designed to engage people to lead healthy and active lives? Altarum’s Food and Nutrition focus area has supported organizations with evaluation and implementation services for over three decades.
- Our team of experts includes registered dietitians with decades of evaluation experience and subject matter expertise in nutrition security, obesity, physical activity, SNAP-Ed, and WIC.
- Altarum has supported food and nutrition evaluation and implementation projects in more than 40 states and territories.
- Altarum has conducted over 40 evaluations of SNAP-Ed social marketing campaigns in eight states.
What We Do
We work directly with partners that are funding and implementing public health nutrition and chronic disease prevention initiatives to help them maximize their impact in ways that will help lead to better outcomes in diet, physical activity, health status, and equity.
We offer a wide range of services to support our client’s program needs at all stages of program implementation, from data gathering to informing program development to communicating impact. Our service offerings include:
- Environmental scans and literature reviews
- Evaluation design and implementation
- Formative, outcome, and impact evaluations
- Social marketing campaign evaluations
- Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis
- Cost and return on investment analyses
- Technical and lay communications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, scientific reports, infographics, and data visualizations and dashboards
- Expert consultation and program implementation support on topics such as policy, systems, and environmental change strategies
- Training on evidence-based and best practices
- Facilitation and strategic planning
Featured Projects
Featured Publications
Altarum's food and nutrition experts regularly contribute peer-reviewed journal articles, scientific reports, infographics, and data visualizations and dashboards. View featured publications below or download a listing of selected peer-reviewed journal articles.
Healthy Choices Catch On: Data-informed Evolution of a Social Marketing Campaign
Outcome Evaluation of the University of Tennessee Extension Farmers’ Market Fresh Nutrition Education Program
Improving Partnerships in Rural Communities: Organizing Approaches for Improved Effectiveness and Reach of Rural Nutrition Programs
Contact Us
Karah Mantinan - MPH, RD
Program Director, Food and Nutrition
Areas of Expertise- Food and Nutrition Programs
- Mixed-Methods Evaluation Study Design and Implementation
- Environmental Assessments and Literature Reviews
Karah oversees a portfolio of evaluation, training, and technical assistance initiatives designed to increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity. She has over 15 years of experience designing and leading mixed-methods evaluation studies, developing resources to support and improve project implementation, and effectively communicating results to stakeholders in ways that are meaningful and actionable. Karah is passionate about using data to inform decision-making and improve health equity, outcomes, and efficiency. She has a master of public health degree in nutrition from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a bachelor of science degree in nutritional sciences from Michigan State University, and is a registered dietitian.
Tara Fowler - PhD, MPH, CPH
Vice President, Population Health
Areas of Expertise- Applied Research and Analytics
- Maternal and Child Health
- Qualitative Research
Tara Fowler leads Altarum's population health work, including in the areas of community health, applied research and analytics, and delivery systems transformation. She has led a variety of multifaceted quantitative and qualitative research projects that deliver insights to leaders of government health agencies, from the Defense Health Agency to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Her recent work includes an evaluation of a HRSA-funded program implemented in 16 states to improve oral health of low-income pregnant women and infants. Tara holds a PhD in public health from the University of South Florida.