Get Updates
Rhoda R. Cohen
Senior Survey Researcher
Rhoda Cohen, a senior survey researcher, has substantial knowledge of nutrition-assistance programs, including those targeting the elderly. She is a leading expert in the design and direction of large-scale, complex data collection activities on nutrition studies for governmental agencies. With nearly 30 years of experience, she has expertise in every aspect of conducting survey research, including designing surveys, constructing sample frames, recruiting and training data collectors, and managing all aspects of data collection.
Cohen served as project director for the evaluation of the Older Americans Act Title III-C Elderly Nutrition Services Program, designing data collection instruments and managing the preparation tasks for the process, cost, and client outcomes studies. For this study she developed an approach to collecting agency menu data using the Automated Multiple-Pass Method of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Cohen has had a lead role on most of Mathematica’s school nutrition projects. She is currently survey director on the Evaluation of the Impact of the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children Household-Based Demonstrations on Food Insecurity. In this role, she is responsible for developing baseline and follow-up questionnaires administered to parents of students eligible for free and reduced-price National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program meals. She was also the survey director for the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-III, which assessed the meals offered in the USDA’s school meals programs as well as food and nutrient intakes of school-age children. She was responsible for the design and implementation of the data collection from school food authority directors, principals, food-service managers, students, and parents in 135 school districts.
As project director for three rounds of Feeding America’s Quadrennial Examination of Hunger in America, Cohen had overall responsibility for coordinating and managing the work of large data collection and project staffs in the most recent round for more than 37,000 agencies and 62,000 clients.
Cohen is a reviewer for the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She holds an M.S. in food and nutrition from Cornell University.
Less Detail More DetailStaff Profile
- Areas of Expertise
- Key Projects
- Publications
- Nutrition-assistance programs
- Designing surveys, constructing sample frames, recruiting and training data collectors, and managing all aspects of data collection