Katherine L Cason, PhD, RD, LD

Katherine serves as the Associate Director of Extension. A registered and licensed dietitian, she holds a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from Penn State University; an MS in Nutrition from the Texas Woman’s University; and, a Ph.D. in Nutrition from Virginia Tech.  She has extensive experience in community nutrition and health, clinical dietetics, and foodservice management. Before joining Penn State Extension in August 2016, she worked with Clemson University as a professor in the Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences Department, and as Director of the Center for Healthy Living.

At Penn State, she directs three Extension Program Teams – Health and Wellness team, Family Well-being, and Vector-borne Disease.  Directed to Americans throughout their lifespans, programming within the Health and Wellness team is focused on promoting health, preventing and managing disease and disability, and decreasing health disparities among minority populations. The Family Well-being team responds to and impacts priority issues facing children, youth, families, and communities in Pennsylvania.  In response to the opioid crisis and in support of developing the current and future workforce, the family well-being programs address the critical issue of “building healthy and resilient children, youth, and families across the lifespan.”  The Vector-borne Disease team conducts programming that focuses on prevention of vector-borne disease, control of vectors, identification of vectors, and risks and threats. 

Katherine's research is in the area of socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological factors affecting food choice, nutrient intake, food purchasing and preparation practices, and level of food security among limited-resource audiences, and the impact of nutrition education on dietary adequacy, food and nutrition practices of children, youth, and families.