With the holiday season underway, many people are looking forward to festive foods, gatherings with loved ones, shopping for gifts and other traditions.
Yet experts say the holiday season can also be a time of weight gain, loneliness and stress, especially when it comes to traveling during the busiest season.
The George Washington University has experts available to offer insight, commentary and analysis on a number of topics related to the holiday season. If you would like to speak with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations at [email protected].
Health & Fitness
Leigh Frame is the executive director of the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health and the Co-Founder and Associate Director of the GW Resiliency & Well-being Center at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She can speak about taking a holistic health perspective around the holidays, focusing on not just eating well and exercising, but also reducing stress and spending time with loved ones.
Loretta DiPietro is a professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health. She can talk about holiday meals and how a 15 minute post-meal walk may lower your risk of high blood sugar and diabetes. She can also offer tips on how to stay in shape this winter and a plan for building more exercise into daily life.
Food Safety
Barbara Kowalcyk is the associate professor and director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security within the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health. For 20 years she has been a nationally recognized expert in food safety with training in epidemiology, public health informatics, risk science, regulatory decision-making, and public policy.
Janet Buffer, is the senior institute manager for the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security within the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Mental Health
Melissa Batchelor, an associate professor of nursing and geriatric nursing researcher, is the director of GW's interdisciplinary Center for Aging, Health and Humanities at the GW School of Nursing. She has over 25 years of experience in the aging and long-term care and healthcare space. She can discuss grief and loss during the holidays, maintaining traditions when a loved one has Alzheimer's disease, and the four things to check for with aging parents during the holidays.
Laurie Theeke is the associate dean for the PhD in Nursing Program at the GW School of Nursing. Her program of research is centered on the problem of loneliness and understanding how it influences the human health experience. Through her research, she is working to better understand how we can help lonely people and to reduce the stigma associated with loneliness. She can discuss loneliness around the holidays and ways to cope with these feelings.
Lorenzo Norris, is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the chief wellness officer at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He can discuss how holidays can be stressful and an anxiety-provoking time for many people.
Holiday Travel & Hospitality
Jungho Suh, teaching assistant professor of management, is an expert on evidence-based entrepreneurship, strategic human resource management, service management, diversity, equity, and inclusion, sustainability and ESG reporting in the travel industry, digital platforms in the service industry, and gastronomy tourism. He has studied the travel and service industry closely and can speak to a number of topics related to holiday travel and hospitality.
Liang “Larry” Yu is a professor of hospitality management. Yu’s current research focuses on hotel market analysis, tourism product value chain analysis, tourist satisfaction and hospitality crisis management. He has studied the travel and service industry closely and can speak to a number of topics related to holiday travel and hospitality.
Stuart Levy is an associate teaching professor of management. His teaching and consulting expertise involves team building, professional skill building, and customer experience evaluation. He teaches leadership, entrepreneurship, and event and hospitality management, all grounded in experiential learning methodologies. Prior to academia, he has held management positions in tour operating and digital marketing, and served as a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Hospitality and Leisure Practice.
Shopping Local & Supporting Entrepreneurs
Kathy Korman Frey is an industry instructor of entrepreneurship and the director of the Center For Entrepreneurial Excellence at the GW School of Business. She helped develop and currently teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) at GWSB. She is an expert on entrepreneurship, women and business, venture funded start-up, and market and acquisition (buy-side) research.
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