Dr. Natalia Santos, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the UNMC College of Public Health's Department of Health Promotion, with a joint appointment as a Health Promotion Specialist for the Nebraska Extension. Her research focuses on food access, built environments, and nutrition over the past decade. Dr. Santos earned her BS from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2013), an MPH from the University of Iowa (2016), and her PhD from UNMC (2025). Her work experience includes roles as a nutrition educator, a graduate research assistant on healthy food retail, and leading policy, systems, and environmental change workforce development for food systems at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. Her research interests now expand to include food insecurity, as well as interdisciplinary partnerships in cancer, sustainability, the environment, and maternal health. Honors include the prestigious USDA, NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship for her dissertation, "Analyzing Food Access: An Investigation of Food Insecurity Amongst Latinos in Rural Nebraska," the 2024 UNMC Graduate Student of Distinction award, and the Suzanne and Ward Chambers Summer Global Health Fellow (2023). Her professional society memberships include the American Public Health Association (serving as Secretary-Elect for the Food & Nutrition Section), the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior.