Ryan Gamba Faculty Profile

My research program focuses on how food insecurity and hunger in America are associated with adverse health outcomes. I have studied pregnant women and children and health outcomes such as diet quality and weight gain. I am currently interested in food insecurity on college campuses and more specifically how we can best serve our diverse community of students to improve their food security status.

• Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Epidemiology
• M.P.H. University of California, Berkeley, Maternal and Child Health with a specialty in Nutrition
• B.S. University of California, Davis, Nutrition Science

Gamba, R. J., Schmeltz, M. T., Ortiz, N., Engelman, A., Lam, J., Ampil, A., ... & Taylor, S. (2021). ‘Spending all this time stressing and worrying and calculating’: marginal food security and student life at a Diverse Urban University. Public Health Nutrition, 1-10.

Gamba, R.J., Eskenazi, B., Madsen, B., Hubbard, A., Harley, K., & Laraia, B. (2020). “Changing from a highly food secure household to a marginal or food insecure household is associated with decreased weight and body mass index z-scores among Latino children from CHAMACOS.” Pediatric Obesity. e12762

Gamba, R.J., Eskenazi, B., Madsen, B., Hubbard, A., Harley, K., & Laraia, B. (2020) “Early life exposure to food insecurity is associated with changes in BMI during childhood among Latinos from CHAMACOS." Journal of Immigrant and Migrant Health:1-8.

Guzzardo, M.T., Khosla, N., Adams, A.L., Bussmann, J.D., Engelman, A., Ingraham, N., Gamba, R., Jones-Bey, A., Moore, M.D., Toosi, N.R. and Taylor, S., 2020. “The Ones that Care Make all the Difference”: Perspectives on Student-Faculty Relationships. Innovative Higher Education, pp.1-18.

Gamba, R. J., Leung, C. W., Petito, L., Abrams, B., & Laraia, B. A. (2019). Sugar sweetened beverage consumption during pregnancy is associated with lower diet quality and greater total energy intake. PloS one, 14(4), e0215686.

Khosla, N., Gamba, R., Taylor, S., Adediji, L., Bovey, J., Engelman, A., ... & Inch, E. S. (2019). Academic goal-setting among college students experiencing food insecurity, housing instability, and other challenges in a diverse public university. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 1-13

Gamba, R. J., Leung, C.W., Guendelman, S., Lahiff, M., & Laraia, B. (2016). Household food insecurity is not associated with overall diet quality among pregnant women in NHANES 1999-2008. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 1-9 doi: 10.1007/s10995-016-2058-1

Ampil, A., Pritchard, M.M., Santillan, J.K.A., Solis-Rivera, E., Ortiz, N., Lam J., Schmeltz, M.T., Engelman, A., Ingram, D., Cheyne, K., Taylor, S., Gamba, R.J. “ ‘Spending all this time stressing and worrying and calculating, and you know that just kind of sucks.’: Marginal Food Security and Student Life.” California Higher Education Basic Needs Association Conference, Costa Mesa, CA. February 2020.

Ingraham, N., Rush-Woods, D., Jones-Bey, A., Gamba, R., Guzzardo, M., Khosla, N., Scharberg, M., Taylor, S., & Inch, E. Supporting students with complex and overlapping challenges through a mixed methods learning collaboration. Contributor to a panel presentation delivered by colleagues at the National Women’s Studies Association, San Francisco, CA. November 2019.

Taylor, S., Maguire, J. Crutchfield, R., Hermoso, J., Graham, J., Inch, E., Jones-Bey, A., Bovey, J., Engelman, A., Gamba, R., Khosla, N., Kwan Lan, T., Bergeron, S., Lindfors, A., Ingram, D., Scudder, C., Vang, D.T., Padilla, N.D., & Meyer-Adams, N.  Basic needs in a statewide university system: Meeting students where they are. Contributor to a panel presentation delivered by colleagues at the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Denver, CO. October 2019.

Gamba, R.J., Eskenazi, B., Madsen, B., Hubbard, A., & Laraia, B. Becoming a food insecure household is associated with decreased weight among children. 10^th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference. Anaheim, CA. July 2019.

Taylor, S., Khosla, N., Gamba, R., Adediji, L., Bergeron, S., Bovey, J., Engelman, A., Ingram, D., Jones-Bey, A., Kwan Lan, T., Linfors, A., Scharberg, M., Inch, E. Goal Attainment in College Students from Underprivileged Backgrounds. Contributor to a paper presentation delivered by colleagues at the International Consortium of Social Development, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. July 2019.

Taylor, S., Kashinath, S., Khosla, N., Gamba, R., Brown, C., Engleman, A., Adediji, L., Bovey, J., Kwan Lan, T., Lindfors, A., Bergeron, S., Ingram, D., Jones-Bey, A., Scharberg, M., & Inch, E. Going to college with a disability: Building on strengths and addressing challenges to support student success. Two-hour breakout session delivered by colleagues at the Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity, Honolulu, HI. March 2019.

Taylor, S., Khosla, N., Gamba, R., Bergeron, S., Bovey, J., Kwan Lan, T., Engelman, A., Adediji, L., Lindfors, A., Ingram, D., Jones-Bey, A., Scharberg, M., & Inch, E. Enhancing strengths and addressing challenges to support student success. (Contributor to a) Fifty-minute oral presentation at the Annual California State University Symposium on Teaching and Learning, Fresno State University, March 2019. 

Gamba, R.J., Esekanazi, B., Madsen, K., Hubbard, A., Laraia, B.A. Early life exposure to food insecurity is associated with changes in BMI during childhood among Latino children from CHAMACOS. 145^th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Nov 2018.

Oman, K., Maluck N., Cheyne, K., Engelman, A., Taylor, S., Wood, L., Gamba, R.J. Emergency Food Delivery App or Grocery Gift Cards: Which is Better at Improving Food Security For Students at CSU East Bay? Contributor to a poster presentation delivered by student researchers at the Center for Student Research Symposium at CSU East Bay. April 2018.

Haydu, S., Gamba, R. California Infant Feeding Guide – What is New? Co-presented during a webinar

for the California Department of Public Health, CA Breastfeeding Coalition, and CA WIC Association.

August 2017.

Gamba, R.J., Laraia, B.A., Saraiva, C., Marchi, K., Dove, M., Curtis, M. Food insecurity among Pregnant Women: Trends, characteristics, and disparities. Accepted for poster presentation for the 143^rd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Oct 2015.

Gamba, R.J., Leung, C.W., Guendelman, S., Lahiff, M., & Laraia, B. (2015). Household food insecurity is not associated with diet quality among pregnant women in NHANES 1999-2008. Poster presented at the 7^th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference, June 2013.

Gamba, R.J., Schuchter, J., Rutt, C., & Seto, E. Y. Metrics used in the USA to describe the food environment and its effects on obesity: A systematic review. Paper presented at the Society for Prevention Research 21^st Annual Meeting. May 2013.

Court Appointed Special Advocate - Alameda County. http://www.casaofalamedacounty.org/