With Thanksgiving almost around the corner, many Americans are looking forward to a big Turkey dinner, gatherings with family and friends, shopping for gifts and other traditions. Yet experts say this time of year can also wreak havoc with a diet and fitness plan or induce stress or the blues if traditions don’t go as expected.
Faculty at the George Washington University are 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].
History of Thanksgiving
David J. Silverman, history professor at GW, specializes in Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history. His most recent book is This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, published by Bloomsbury in 2019. In this new book, Silverman deconstructs the facts around the Thanksgiving holiday. Working with Native American communities and scholars, his research sheds new light on the fraught history of the Wampanoag and their uneasy alliance with the Pilgrims. Silverman hopes his book sparks honest dialogue about America’s past.
Holiday Health & Fitness
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 build exercise into daily life and stay in shape this winter–including a plan for the holidays.
Leigh Frame is executive director of the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health and 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.
Food Safety
Barbara Kowalcyk is an associate professor of exercise and nutrition science and director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is a national food safety expert with training in epidemiology, public health informatics, risk science and public policy. She can discuss safe food preparation tips for preparing a healthy holiday meal.
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. Batchelor is a nurse and PhD with 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. 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 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.
Small Business Saturday
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.
Cyber Safety
Scott White is the associate professor and Director of the Cybersecurity Program and Cyber Academy. White’s research and expertise focus on cybersecurity, cybercrime, counter-terrorism and infrastructure protection. He can discuss current threat vectors and provide tips for creating a more secure cyber experience. White can also provide insights to address security features in software, privacy policies and what to avoid shopping this holiday season.
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