Daniel Hatfield MS, PhD

Dan Hatfield is an applied community and behavioral interventionist working with ChildObesity180 at Tufts University. His work lies at the intersection of research and practice – in understanding what works in terms of getting people, particularly young people, to eat better and move more and using that knowledge to inform policy and practice in individual communities and at a broad scale.

Dr. Hatfield’s research and applied projects have focused on developing, evaluating, and scaling high-impact, theory-based physical activity interventions for children; understanding how college-age health behaviors track with longer-term outcomes and evaluating healthy-lifestyle initiatives on college campuses; and collaborating with community partners on initiatives to support healthy eating and physical activity in schools. From 2015-18, Dr. Hatfield led the launch and execution of the New Balance Foundation Billion Mile Race, a campaign promoting school-based walking and running clubs that have reached over 8,900 schools and 2.6 million children nationwide. Previously, as a New Balance Doctoral Fellow and USDA Doctoral Fellow at the Friedman School, he designed and implemented a community-based study testing the effect of an after-school nutrition and physical activity program for children with overweight and obesity and led a novel investigation of associations between physical activity and cardiometabolic risk factors in a nationally representative sample of adolescents.