Bree Bode

Professor of Practice, Public Health & Society
PhD, Wayne State University
MPH, Grand Valley State University
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contact info:

  • Pronouns: she/her/hers
  • Email: bbode@wustl.edu
  • Office: Hillman Hall, Room 236

mailing address:

  • Public Health & Society
    MSC 1310-257-265
    Washington University
    1 Brookings Drive
    St. Louis MO 63130-4899

Dr. Bree Bode engages in community-based activities to elevate solutions that address social drivers of health, especially political and commercial drivers related to food justice.

Dr. Bode has a special interest in policy and system variables that influence food choices of children and families in retail and school-based environments. Foundational to her work are formative lived experiences with poverty and socially supportive programs which inform her collaborative public health work and aspirations for effective, sustainable systems change.

Courses

Public Health Theories, Models, and Frameworks

This course will provide an overview of social and behavioral science and humanistic theories and frameworks that are currently used to: 1) understand health related behaviors; and 2) guide development of interventions and policies designed to promote positive health behavior including those that prevent, reduce or eliminate major public health problems. We will also explore the history of these theories and frameworks and the cultural and artistic approaches to change health and health related behaviors. We will use an ecological framework to examine theories at multiple levels of the culture and social ecology from individual to policy level, focusing on applications that will impact health at the population level.

Research Methods in Understanding Health and Society

Research is the key to building evidence in public health. This course will provide an overview of public health research methods and the sequential research process. Core research concepts to be presented and applied include developing research questions, literature reviews, research ethics, study designs, data collection, quantitative and qualitative research methods understanding research data, and research dissemination.

Recent Publications:

McGuirt, Jared T., Megan R. Winkler, Yarisbel Melo Herrera, Bree Bode, Caitlin M. Lowery, and Maya Vadiveloo. “Digitalization of the Retail Food Environment: Modernizing Food Access, Highlighting Health Equity, and Identifying Opportunities for Future Research and Practice.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 58, no. 3 (March 2026): 242–57. 

Bode, Bree, Sarah Mott, Jacob M. Cutler, and Marci Scott. “Employing a Community-Involved Process to Incorporate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education into Community-Supported Agriculture Sites.” Health Promotion Practice, January 21, 2026.

Bode, Bree, Cailyn A. Van Camp, Lauryn Lin, Jocelyn Hayward, Kerri Raymond, and Marci Scott. “Community Partner Input: Improving Usability and Feasibility of a Community Physical Activity Intervention.” American Journal of Health Promotion 40, no. 6 (November 28, 2025): 739–47.

Bode, Bree, Lauryn Lin, Molly Stothard, Cailyn A. Van Camp, Jocelyn Hayward, and Marci Scott. “Rec-ConnectTM: A Physical Activity Demonstration Playbook: Qualitative Insights on Multi-Level Behavior Change Impacts and Connections.” American Journal of Health Promotion 40, no. 6 (November 24, 2025): 701–12.