In June 2025, Kristi Hammond successfully passed her comprehensive examinations, officially advancing to PhD Candidate (ABD) status at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her dissertation research is on food environment impacts on child diet quality and health in the Pacific, with a particular focus on ultra-processed foods. In addition to CHL-FS, her doctoral research has been supported by a NIH T32 Predoctoral Training Fellowship through the Hawai‘i Artificial Intelligence for Precision Nutrition Science Research (HI-AIPrN) program. In January 2026, Kristi recently completed her two-year appointment with T32, where she received interdisciplinary training across data science/visualization, AI/ML, and precision nutrition. Additionally, her academic merit was recognized by the university with the 2025–2026 Dai Ho Chun Graduate Fellowship.
Kristi has been continuing in her role assisting the CHL Data Center where she has expanded her proficiency in data cleaning, manipulation, and analysis. This has led to her involvement in several CHL publications contributing to the growing body of literature on child nutrition in the Pacific region. In addition, Kristi was given the opportunity to present original findings at two major conferences:
- June 2025 – ISBNPA Annual Meeting (Auckland, New Zealand): Presented on the impact of ultra-processed food consumption among children across the US-affiliated Pacific.
- September 2025 – Native American Nutrition Conference (Prior Lake, MN): Shared insights into the geographic and economic factors influencing food access and diet quality specifically within Guam.
Kristi is looking forward to defending her dissertation later this year and hopes to strengthen understandings of structural and social determinants within the broader discourse on highly processed foods.