Department Name

Portrait of Maria C. Swartz, PhD, MPH, RD, LD
Phone: (409) 747-1633

Maria C. Swartz, PhD, MPH, RD, LD

  • Assistant Professor
Nutrition Sciences and Health Behavior

About Me

Dr. Swartz’s training background includes public health, behavioral sciences, and rehabilitation sciences. She is also a registered and licensed dietitian. The Swartz lab’s overarching goal is to improve the quality of life for children, adolescents, and young adult (AYA) cancer patients and survivors.

The Swartz Lab focuses on two main areas: first, improving access to prehabilitation and rehabilitation services for cancer patients—especially those in the AYA group—and second, understanding the physical and cognitive benefits of physical activity in patients and survivors of children and AYA cancer.

To optimize access and improve the delivery of physical activity interventions to impact physical and cognition functions, her research has focused on developing scalable assessment approaches (e.g., telehealth tools to conduct physical function assessments) to inform the development of system-level interventions to promote health behaviors and facilitate the delivery of preventive care to attenuate functional decline and cognitive impairment among at-risk individuals.

Teaching Interest

  • Cancer Rehabilitation
  • Health Behavior
  • Learning Health System approaches 
  • Nutrition Research Practicums
  • Research Methods and Applications

Research

Research Interest

  • Aging
  • AI supported Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions
  • Cancer Rehabilitation
  • Cancer Survivorship
  • Eating Behavior
  • Ecological momentary assessment
  • eHealth
  • Lifestyle Intervention
  • Physical Activity
  • Remote Monitoring
  • Sedentary Behavior
Phone: (409) 747-1633

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