Skip to main content
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 
Agricultural and Human Sciences

Virginia Stage, PhD, RDN

VS
Virginia State

Associate Professor

Nutrition Education and Behavior Specialist

268 Ricks Hall

919.515.7812

Bio

Dr. Virginia Stage is a Registered Dietitian, Nutrition Education & Behavior Specialist, and Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture and Human Sciences at NC State University. From the kitchen to the classroom, Dr. Stage’s mission is to empower early childhood teachers and families with evidence-based strategies to improve children’s dietary quality and school readiness through early education, exposure, and access to healthy foods. She has worked with P-8 teachers nationwide on how to improve food and nutrition learning environments in school settings using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. She is also experienced in co-developing integrative nutrition education curricular resources with P-8 educators.

Programs and Initiatives

  • The Food-based Early Education Lab
  • More PEAS Please!
  • Healty ROOTS

Contributing Websites

Professional Honors/Offices/Recognitions

  • 2026: CALS Values Award: Excellence, NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • 2025: Society for Nutrition Education & Behavior’s Nutrition Education Program Impact Award – More PEAS Please!
  • 2024: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Best Great Educational Material (GEM) Article Award 
  • 2024: Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Year of Open Science Recognition Challenge Award
  • 2023: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Gold Author Recognition Award
  • 2023: Goodnight Early Career Innovator, NC State University
  • 2023: Society for Nutrition Education & Behavior’s Nutrition Education Research Award
  • Present-2019: Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN)
  • Present-2019: Early Childhood Working Group focused on BMI Measurement in Head Start Co-Chair
  • 2022-2023: Society for Nutrition Education & Behavior Children’s Research Division Chair Elect
  • 2022-2023: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Editor-in-Chief Search Committee Immediate Past Chair
  • 2022: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Best Brief Article Award [Finalist]
  • 2022: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Silver Author Recognition Award
  • 2022: North Carolina State University Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Outstanding Young Alumna Award
  • 2022: East Carolina University Graduate School Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award
  • 2021-2022: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Editor-in-Chief Search Committee Chair
  • 2019: North Carolina Head Start Association (NCHSA) Special Recognition Award
  • 2018: Society for Nutrition Education & Behavior’s Early Career Award
  • 2017: North Carolina Dietetic Association’s Outstanding Dietetic Educator Award
  • 2009: North Carolina Dietetic Association’s Young Dietitian of the Year

Selected Publications

  • Dixon, J. B., Blosser, E. G., Wu, Q., Goodell, L. S., Donaldson, J. L., Lambert, M. D., … Stage, V. C. (2026). Beyond the plate: can a food-based science learning intervention improve preschool children’s fruit and vegetable consumption? Public Health Nutrition, 29(1), e29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980026101967
  • Stage, V. C., Dixon, J. B., Grist, P., Hegde, A. V., Lee, T. D., Lundquist, R., & Goodell, L. S. (2025). More PEAS Please! Process Evaluation of a STEAM Program Designed to Promote Dietary Quality, Science Learning, and Language Skills in Preschool Children. Nutrients, 17(11), 1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17111922
  • Stage, V.C.  (corresponding), Dixon, J.B., Grist, P., Wu, Q., Hegde, A.V., Lee, T.D., Lundquist, R., & Goodell, L.S. More PEAS Please! Design and Implementation of Methodology of a Preschool STEAM Program to Promote Dietary Quality, Science Learning, and Language Development. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2026.01.006
  • Sisson SB, Helms E, Casperson S, Hasnin S, Jilcott Pitts S, Stage VC, Long CR, Massey-Swindle T, Dev DA, Braun A, Stookey JD, Cape R, Baldwin J. (2025). Examining Intra- and Inter-Device Reliability of Pressure-Mediated Reflection Spectroscopy in a Multi-State Sample of Healthy Adults. Public Health Nutrition. http://doi.org/10.1017/S136898002510116X
  • La Paro, K., Mendez, L., Stage, V.C., & Lee, T. (2025). Bilingualtek, a Culturally-linguistically Science-language instructional Approach: Implementing Engaging Science Activities with Young Latine Children. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. http://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2025.2591191
  • Stage, V. C., Dixon, J. B., Grist, P., Hegde, A. V., Lee, T. D., Lundquist, R., & Goodell, L. S. (2025). More PEAS Please! Process evaluation of a STEAM program designed to promote dietary quality, science learning, and language skills in preschool children. Nutrients. Pubmed 
  • Stage, V.C., Dixon, J.B., Grist, P., Wu, Q., Hegde, A.V., Lee, T.D., Lundquist, R., & Goodell, L.S. (2025). A Food-Based Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics Learning Program May Improve Preschool Children’s Science Knowledge and Language Skills in Rural North Carolina. Nutrients. Pubmed
  • Dixon, J., Resor, J., Holmes, L., Hegde, A., Goodell, L.S., Mendez, L., McMillan, V., Stage, V.C. (2025). Building Professional Learning Communities in Head Start: A Mixed Methods Study on What it Takes from Teachers’ Perspectives. Journal of Early Childhood Research. Pubmed
  • Lee, T., Dixon, J., Stage, V. Hegde, A., McMillan, V. J., Goodell, L. S. & Mendez, L. (2025). Observing Pill Bugs to Develop Phenomena-Based Professional Development for Pre-School Teachers. International Journal of Early Years Education. Pubmed
  • Gray, H.L., Stage, V.C., Taylor, C.A., & Bandini, L. (2025). Unmet Needs, Untapped Solutions: Current Challenges and Future Directions for Including Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Nutrition Education Programming. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior. Pubmed

View More Publications

Education

BS Nutrition & Dietetics East Carolina University

MS Clinical Nutrition East Carolina University

PhD Nutrition Science North Carolina State University

Registered and Licensed Dietician East Carolina University

Certificate in Public Health Leadership University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Area(s) of Expertise

  • Nutrition Education & Behavior Change Support for Young Children and Families
  • School-based Nutrition Education Interventions
  • Food/Nutrition as a Classroom Teaching Tool and Teacher Professional Development
  • Integrating STEM and Food/Nutrition Education
  • PSE (Policy, Systems, Environmental) Change

Grants

Date: 09/17/24 - 4/29/29
Amount: $8,067.00
Funding Agencies: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

For the proposed study, we will build upon the lessons learned from our pilot study and additional preliminary studies we conducted with 498 rural FCCHs to better understand their training preferences, strengths, and challenges for using RF-EBPs. Given these prior studies, the proposed study will benefit from our team���s long-standing rural FCCH, Extension and early childhood policy partnerships. The objective of the proposed study is to test EAT for Prevention���s effectiveness by conducting a properly powered cluster-randomized comparative effectiveness trial with 100 rural FCCHs randomly assigned to either: 1) EAT for Prevention or 2) an attention control, where providers engage via standard online modules unrelated to nutrition or RF-EBPs. Assessments will occur at baseline, week 16 (the end of the EAT for Prevention and attention control programs), and follow-up (week 24). Our central hypotheses are that, compared to the control group, the EAT for Prevention group will result in: 1) improved dietary and health outcomes among children, and 2) improved RF-EBPs implementation among FCCH providers. Our aims and specific hypotheses follow:

Date: 09/30/23 - 9/29/28
Amount: $2,304,000.00
Funding Agencies: US Dept. of Health & Human Services (DHHS)

(tentative) This project utilizes evidence-based obesity prevention strategies in multiple community settings, in order to provide an integrated approach to healthy eating and physical activity in the eastern NC counties with the highest obesity rates.

Date: 06/30/23 - 6/29/28
Amount: $450,134.00
Funding Agencies: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Clemson, NC State and three other Land Grant University Cooperative Extensions will implement and evaluate evidence-based strategies in counties identified as ���high need��� to improve diabetes self-care practices, quality of care, and early detection of complications among people with diabetes. Clemson University will apply for Component B of this NOFO. NC State will receive a sub-award in the amount of $100,000-$150,000 per year.

Date: 06/01/23 - 5/31/26
Amount: $542,633.00
Funding Agencies: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The proposed research project aims to develop, evaluate, and disseminate PEAS (Preschool Education in Applied Sciences), an innovative multi-component professional development program that will focus on building a stronger preschool STEM educator workforce. Strengthening the preschool educator workforce will build teachers��� science teaching knowledge, science teaching interest, and science teaching efficacy; improve the quality of early STEM experiences for underrepresented minority children; improve children���s science knowledge and development of language within the context of healthy living, and ultimately feed the STEM pipeline with individuals prepared for careers in the health sciences. Over the course of the program, we will impact over 350 teachers and 3,400 children with hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, with thousands of additional children reached through teachers who continue implementing the PEAS approach in subsequent years.

Date: 12/01/22 - 4/25/25
Amount: $67,491.00
Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF)

This 4-year Early Design and Development project focused on the Learning Strand of the DRK-12 Program addresses the need to maximize opportunities in science learning and achievement for low-income Latinx preschoolers who are dual language learners (DLLs) through the iterative development and field study assessment of Bilingualtek (BT). BT is a multimedia-supported, integrated science-language instructional approach focused on engaging science experiences, enriched by three innovative, mutually supporting instructional practices: scaffolded science talk, culturally and linguistically responsive science-shared readings, and e-books with multimedia supports for science and language learning in the preschool. Our approach is informed by evidence-based instructional approaches drawn from several disciplines and designed to be implemented by monolingual preschool teachers serving Latinx preschoolers. BT���s long-term objective is to foster science achievement in Latinx DLLs through a synergistic science-language instructional approach that builds on the cultural and linguistic resources these children bring to their science learning experiences in early childhood classrooms. Henceforth we will use the term Latinx DLLs to refer to children from low-income households who are sequentially acquiring English while still developing language skills in their home language, Spanish.


View all grants 

Groups