Stella L Volpe, PhD, RD, LD/N, FACSM
Research Associate and Lecturer N
Contact Information
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Room 140 Fagin Hall
418 Curie Blvd.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4217
UNITED STATES
tel: (215) 898-4901
email: svolpe@nursing.upenn.edu
Stella Volpe is a nutritionist and exercise physiologist whose work on obesity prevention, body composition, bone mineral density, and mineral metabolism and exercise represent more than a decade of consistent funding. Prior to beginning her faculty appointment in January 2004 at the University of Pennsylvania, she was on faculty at the University of Massachusetts from 1994 through 2003. She has recently begun researching the effects of environmental changes to prevent obesity, providing a "passive intervention" to avert the obesity epidemic occurring in the United States and throughout the world. Dr. Volpe is a Core Member of the Biobehavioral Research Center, an Associated Faculty Member of the Center for Health Disparities and the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, all in the School of Nursing; an Associate Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and an Associate Faculty Member in the Graduate Program in Public Health, and co-director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, all in the School of Medicine. She is also a Faculty Associate in the Penn Institute for Urban Research, a Senior Fellow in the Center for Public Health Initiatives, and a Senior Fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn.
Teaching
Dr. Volpe teaches Nursing 376, Issues in Nutrition, Exercise and Fitness, where students learn about the science of nutrition and exercise by critically analyzing research in the area of nutrition and sport. Dr. Volpe also teaches Nursing 517: Advanced Nutrition and Metabolism, where students learn about the biochemistry of nutrition; Nursing 54: Principles of Human Nutrition and Nursing 112: Nutrition: Science and Application, where students learn the basics of nutrition science. She also guest lectures in a number of Nursing courses each semester.
Research
Dr. Volpe's research revolves around the effects of the environment on obesity - both how the environment can be changed to prevent obesity, and how the environment has resulted in a more obese nation and world. Her interventions include changing portion sizes in cafeterias and making physical activity more a part of a person's day to implement changes in behavior. Dr. Volpe is also studying the effect of a low-impact exercise program on weight loss in elderly African American women. She has also conducted a number of studies on mineral metabolism and how it affects exercise, thyroid hormone function, bone mineral density, and body weight. Dr. Volpe is a Faculty member of the Physiology of the Body Compartment Fellowship Program in the Department of Neuroscience, Human Nutrition and Food at the Universita Degli Studi "Tor Vergata", Roma, Italia.
• Currently Funded Grants
• Center for Health Disparities Research
• Center for Integrative Science in Aging
• Center for Biobehavioral Research
| Publications (select year) 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 and Prior | In Press | More Publications |
Nutrition science and exercise science have always been a natural combination for me. Combining my knowledge in both areas to conduct research in obesity prevention, thyroid hormone function improvement, and osteoporosis prevention has been motivating and challenging. The environmental, applied, and molecular research that is occurring here at Penn, and throughout the world, will help to advance these sciences and result in better health outcomes for our nation and the world. 