Andrea Brace

Associate Professor Andrea Brace is passionate about promoting food access and equity, and she integrates this passion into her work. 

Andrea Brace

When Andrea Brace attended orientation upon joining the TU faculty, she was surprised by the number of employees who had worked at Towson University for decades. “It speaks well about the university community,” says Brace, who now teaches a course previously taught by a member of Towson University’s faculty for more than 30 years.

“The environmental health course covers environmental epidemiology, toxicology and vector-borne diseases such as Zika virus,” describes Brace, who uses a variety of tools to help students understand their impact on human health and the environment and to make healthy lifestyle changes.

“ Students are often flabbergasted by the extent of their environmental footprint. ”

Andrea Brace

For example, she encourages students to complete an ecological assessment to track their behaviors, such as diet and transportation use.  

“Students are often flabbergasted by the extent of their environmental footprint,” says Brace.

Brace is passionate about promoting food access and equity, and she integrates this passion into her work.  She has published about the effectiveness of creating digital stories in the college classroom to promote a healthy food system, and she challenges her students to create five-minute videos on food issues.

Additionally, Brace researches the relationship between place and health.  

“The research focuses on understanding issues related to communities and access to affordable, fresh, healthy food, including promoting access in areas where there are diet-related health issues,” explains Brace, who is using national-level data to assess the relationship between food deserts, farmers markets that accept food assistance programs, and diet-related disease. 

Brace also helped manage a federal grant that facilitated creating gardens and nutrition education in a food desert in south Baltimore. On campus, Brace promotes the TU Urban Farm, and the FoodShare, the food pantry accessible to everyone in the TU community.

Brace extended the reach of her teaching in summer 2016 as co-director of the Health Profession in the Dominican Republic Study Abroad/Away Program, where students examined the Dominican healthcare system. In summer 2017, she will teach Environmental Health in Australia with a global perspective.