When Anna Grummon graduated from Stanford’s Human Biology Program in 2011, she carried with her a deep appreciation for the community that helped launch her interest in public health. After more than a decade spent deepening her knowledge through graduate study, teaching, and research, Grummon’s return to Stanford as an assistant professor and the Director of the Stanford Food Policy Lab feels less like a surprise and more like a homecoming. In addition to her research, she now guides the next generation of students through the complexities of public health and food policy.
Grummon’s journey to Stanford began in a college town in Michigan, where most students stayed local to pursue higher education. For her, applying to Stanford was an adventurous leap from a place where few students considered West Coast schools. “Stanford has this great combination of academics, entrepreneurs, and athletics, and I was drawn to all of those things,” she recalled. “It felt like why not put your name in the hat?” By Admit Weekend, her decision to come to Stanford was solidified as she found herself excited and inspired by other passionate and curious current and prospective students.
Coming into Stanford, Grummon was already interested in the health sciences. Her initial interest in health began early, sparked by a teacher who encouraged students to bring in healthy snacks for reading time. As an athlete, her curiosity about healthy eating blossomed into an interest in nutrition’s role in physical health and performance. Human Biology became a natural fit for her to explore a broad range of health topics while also diving into the social sciences. During her sophomore year, a seminar with Dr. Cathy Heaney opened her eyes to the world of public health, and the rest was history. “I didn’t see myself working in a clinical role. Taking Cathy’s class, I realized that there was this whole field that is about improving health that wasn’t clinical or one-on-one, and I loved it,” she said. Grummon dove headfirst into the subject, taking every class Heaney taught, TA-ing for her, completing an honors thesis with her, and spending many office hours flipping through the books that lined Heaney’s wall, thinking about the career possibilities in public health. “I was her shadow for four years,” she laughed, “But I found my home.” With this discovery and Heaney’s mentorship, Grummon embraced a path that would later lead to her MSPH and a PhD.
Upon graduating, Grummon stayed on to serve as a Core Course Associate (CA), a role inspired by the innovation, passion, and joy her own CAs brought to the Core when she was a student. In a light-hearted moment, Grummon reminisced about a joke she shared with fellow alumni and CA at the time, Ron Pomper, that in 20 years, they would be the next generation of Core faculty. Perhaps it was in memorable moments like this that she subconsciously planted the seed for returning to her roots, not only as a researcher but as a valuable instructor and mentor.
After serving as a CA, Grummon worked as a research associate at UCSF on healthy beverage initiatives for youth in California. She then completed an MSPH and PhD in Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by roles as a research scientist and a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University.
Today, Grummon is an assistant professor of pediatrics and, by courtesy, of health policy and the Director of the Food Policy Lab. In her lab, Grummon and her team tackle some of the most pressing food policy issues of our time. From food labels to taxation to food assistance programs, Grummon works to understand how to design more effective food policies. Working closely with policymakers and advocates, she evaluates and designs policies and interventions that improve diets, prevent disease, and promote environmental sustainability. She is currently doing a project on the new SNAP policies and is studying ultra-processed foods. “It’s an interesting time in food policy because there’s now interest at the federal level that there hasn’t been in a long time. And the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has also really energized state-level efforts to optimize and develop new policies,” Grummon explained. “We’re hitting a window of opportunity for advancing food policies that we didn’t have 10 years ago. Hopefully we can encourage policymakers to adopt evidence-based policies, help shape them to be as effective as possible, and then evaluate their impacts.”
Outside of the lab, Grummon has also returned full circle to HumBio, this time sharing her knowledge as a behavioral scientist and nutrition policy expert in her upper-division course HumBio 127, Food Policy and Public Health. In the class, students explore the systemic forces that shape our food choices, including government policies and market dynamics. “It’s exciting to share my enthusiasm [for nutrition policies] with the students, and help them see that the choices we make around food are shaped by our environments and the policies in place,” she explained. “Like with many things, we are fish in water. We don’t think about why food labels look the way they do, or why one product is cheaper than another. That’s how I felt when I was getting introduced to public health for the first time, and I hope to do the same for current students exploring this field.” As an alumna, Grummon said she’s also found a deeper connection to her students–one rooted in shared spaces, experiences, and traditions. Students love hearing about her own Stanford journey and life beyond HumBio, and she enjoys learning about what their experiences and interests look like today.
Reflecting on her journey, Grummon emphasized the profound impact of the Human Biology program on shaping her career and worldview. For one, she does not know how things may have unfolded had she not discovered public health and been mentored by Dr. Heaney. Grummon also highlighted the value of interdisciplinarity in her work. “Addressing complex issues like population health or climate change requires drawing on multiple disciplines,” she commented. “But I think an interdisciplinary mindset also brings a humility, excitement, and curiosity that really opens you to thinking about multiple perspectives to these important questions.” In today’s fractured news and media environment, thinking critically and mindfully about evidence is also of the utmost importance.
As Grummon reflects on her path–from discovering public health with Dr. Heaney to shaping food policy at the national level–she sees the same interdisciplinary spark that first drew her to the program guiding her work today. The questions she grappled with as a student now inspire her research on nutrition, health equity, and the policies that shape our food systems. Returning to Stanford, she’s come full circle, contributing to a community that taught her to think broadly, act thoughtfully, and stay curious about the complex forces that influence human health. It’s the mindset she carries into every project, and one that she hopes will also inspire the next generation of Human Biology students.