Marketing faculty conducts social marketing training for SNAP-Ed Nutrition team

Penny Pence Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing, was invited to conduct training in social marketing for, and participate in the strategic planning of, the Ohio SNAP-Ed Nutrition team's social marketing pilot program, across the state in 2016-17. SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program, conducts nutrition and physical activity education in every state through funds from the USDA's Food and Nutrition Services. Social marketing refers to the use of commercial marketing and marketing communication techniques to achieve positive change around behavior choices, healthy food selections in the case of SNAP-Ed. 

Smith has long worked with numerous SNAP-Ed programs, guiding social marketing, including Hawaii, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio, and was a founder of the Association of SNAP-Ed Nutrition Networks and other Implementing Agencies. In Ohio she collaborates with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, the research organization that is conducting formative pilot research for the Ohio program.