Annie Murphy, PhD, RDN

Evaluation Specialist

Annie Murphy achieved a PhD in Community Nutrition from the MSU Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. Her career is devoted to developing and evaluating nutrition programs for all age groups – even preschoolers! Annie’s evaluation approach is to minimize respondent burden by using relevant, respectful, and understandable questions. Involving people from the intended population in item and response construction has resulted in her state and national reputation for authentic and practical evaluation. Dr. Murphy particularly loves process evaluation; it is a path to program improvement and to learning what potential participants want and need to know, how they prefer to learn, their barriers and supports for behavior change, and whether the intervention was enjoyable and valuable.

For Annie, working for MFF is rewarding and enjoyable! The evaluation team, administrative support, and never-ending opportunities to creatively assess program value and health behavior change has allowed Dr. Murphy to become an expert in participant-focused evaluation and strategies to turn data into recommendations to improve program delivery and results.

Raised in Saginaw MI by parents who were teachers instilled a passion for lifelong learning and commitment to effective education. Annie’s life is a wonderful combination of valuable work, grandparenting, rescuing old or impaired cats and dogs, and focusing on personal health goals.