She\u2019s played a role in the creation of a vibrant community farm<\/a> started by ethnically Karen refugees in Wake County. Thanks to her research, Lee County Cooperative Extension created a lending library of cooking equipment<\/a> for those who may not have access to what they need at home. And she\u2019s served as a Parks and Recreation Task Force member in Edgecombe County, helping to craft a 10-year parks and recreation plan<\/a> to better serve that community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While these are just a few examples, the central theme is Hardison-Moody\u2019s passion for behind-the-scenes research and work that ultimately helps people and communities thrive. In addition to her teaching role, she serves as the interim assistant Family and Consumer Sciences Program <\/a>leader and an NC State Extension specialist. She also directs and serves as lead author for Faithful Families Thriving Communities<\/a>, a faith-based health promotion program that is a partnership between NC State Extension and the North Carolina Division of Public Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe common thread for all of this is that I see my role as a facilitator,\u201d she says. \u201cThe work is happening in communities \u2014 and my role is to uplift that work, to support them and to be a tiny little piece of this bigger community narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hardison-Moody grew up in Raleigh with a passion for musical theater and vocal performance that led to a scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill. But she soon found the performance atmosphere wasn\u2019t the right fit for her. General education courses in religious studies and women\u2019s studies, however, helped her find the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI switched to the women\u2019s and gender studies department, and I just found my love,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She earned her bachelor\u2019s degrees in religious studies and women\u2019s studies before receiving a master\u2019s in religious studies with a focus on gender from Vanderbilt University. She then went on to pursue her Ph.D. in religion at Emory University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the summer between two years at Vanderbilt, Hardison-Moody came home to Raleigh for a job with the North Carolina Division of Public Health in women\u2019s and children\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPublic health was the perfect confluence of the things that I care so much about; focused on communities, and particularly women and mothers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, motherhood is central to everything she\u2019s studied since. She went back to Vanderbilt the next year and wrote her master\u2019s thesis on pregnancy. Her Ph.D. built upon that with a deeper understanding around communities, the social norms that shape them, and how religion is so often tied to beliefs about health. At the same time in the public health realm, she looked at how religion impacts reproductive health. Today, her research, work and teaching sit at the intersections of religion and health, while also examining topics surrounding gender, food and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love interdisciplinary work, I always have,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she finished her Ph.D., Hardison-Moody knew she\u2019d return to North Carolina. She\u2019d interacted with NC State Extension in her public health work, and secured a position as a project manager for Voices into Action: The Families, Food, and Health Project (VIA), a USDA grant for a study focused on food insecurity. She later grew her role with Extension to full time and then was hired as an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The VIA project worked with 124 families over eight years with a focus on low-income families. The perspective of female caregivers was central, she says, because they are very often the ones who do the shopping and food preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe talked with them about all facets of their lives \u2014 from what it\u2019s like to grocery shop with very limited SNAP benefits and limited income, to ways their broader environment shapes what they\u2019re able to do, such as their access to resources,\u201d Hardison-Moody says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The results spurred change within local communities, such as community action groups, she says. It was that project that led to the cooking equipment lending library in Lee County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While her work extends across North Carolina, Hardison-Moody brings these experiences back to her teaching at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I work with graduate students, I encourage them to think about their roles,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have a way to bring the university to communities (through Extension) that doesn\u2019t exist in this way outside the land-grant system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extension also has a unique ability to build relationships and build trust within communities, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat gets me really excited is hearing from and talking to people who are doing work in these local rural communities \u2014 that\u2019s really hard work because they\u2019re underfunded, understaffed, and don\u2019t have access to the resources we have in urban counties,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd yet, they\u2019re so committed to improving health and thinking about sustainable economic development in their counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the research side, we\u2019re identifying some real gaps in how we understand rural communities and what they look like, and how we should be working with them when it comes to health,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was evident as well in her COVID-era research project. She and Sarah Bowen, professor of sociology at NC State, served as co-researchers for FIRST: Food Insecurity Responses, Solutions, and Transformation<\/a>. Through FIRST, they worked to understand how families\u2019 food practices had shifted as a result of COVID-19 and worked to identify the processes that could buffer some families from food insecurity but not others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her relationships within communities have also led to opportunities to serve locally, working closely with Extension agents and county managers, and serving on parks and recreation boards, for example. With her interim position with the Family and Consumer Sciences Program, Hardison-Moody sees still another way to reach out across the state. She\u2019s a support arm for family and consumer science agents state-wide and family and consumer science specialists within the university, as well as a partner with colleagues at N.C. A&T State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking toward the future, Hardison-Moody and Bowen are working on a book manuscript. Hardison-Moody says they\u2019ve learned so much about food insecurity and hope to start a larger discussion about how to address food insecurity in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur question is, what does it take for us as a country to say, it\u2019s enough \u2014 what does it take for people and children to not be hungry?\u201d Hardison-Moody says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, building a better community is what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n A community is where we live. It\u2019s where we share our days with family and friends. And it\u2019s a place to invest our energy to make the world a little better than it was before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the power of building community that motivates Annie Hardison-Moody<\/a>, associate professor of agricultural and human sciences<\/a> with NC State University\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her research and work reach far beyond the grounds of NC State into communities across North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s played a role in the creation of a vibrant community farm<\/a> started by ethnically Karen refugees in Wake County. Thanks to her research, Lee County Cooperative Extension created a lending library of cooking equipment<\/a> for those who may not have access to what they need at home. And she\u2019s served as a Parks and Recreation Task Force member in Edgecombe County, helping to craft a 10-year parks and recreation plan<\/a> to better serve that community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While these are just a few examples, the central theme is Hardison-Moody\u2019s passion for behind-the-scenes research and work that ultimately helps people and communities thrive. In addition to her teaching role, she serves as the interim assistant Family and Consumer Sciences Program <\/a>leader and an NC State Extension specialist. She also directs and serves as lead author for Faithful Families Thriving Communities<\/a>, a faith-based health promotion program that is a partnership between NC State Extension and the North Carolina Division of Public Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe common thread for all of this is that I see my role as a facilitator,\u201d she says. \u201cThe work is happening in communities \u2014 and my role is to uplift that work, to support them and to be a tiny little piece of this bigger community narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hardison-Moody grew up in Raleigh with a passion for musical theater and vocal performance that led to a scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill. But she soon found the performance atmosphere wasn\u2019t the right fit for her. General education courses in religious studies and women\u2019s studies, however, helped her find the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI switched to the women\u2019s and gender studies department, and I just found my love,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She earned her bachelor\u2019s degrees in religious studies and women\u2019s studies before receiving a master\u2019s in religious studies with a focus on gender from Vanderbilt University. She then went on to pursue her Ph.D. in religion at Emory University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the summer between two years at Vanderbilt, Hardison-Moody came home to Raleigh for a job with the North Carolina Division of Public Health in women\u2019s and children\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPublic health was the perfect confluence of the things that I care so much about; focused on communities, and particularly women and mothers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, motherhood is central to everything she\u2019s studied since. She went back to Vanderbilt the next year and wrote her master\u2019s thesis on pregnancy. Her Ph.D. built upon that with a deeper understanding around communities, the social norms that shape them, and how religion is so often tied to beliefs about health. At the same time in the public health realm, she looked at how religion impacts reproductive health. Today, her research, work and teaching sit at the intersections of religion and health, while also examining topics surrounding gender, food and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love interdisciplinary work, I always have,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she finished her Ph.D., Hardison-Moody knew she\u2019d return to North Carolina. She\u2019d interacted with NC State Extension in her public health work, and secured a position as a project manager for Voices into Action: The Families, Food, and Health Project (VIA), a USDA grant for a study focused on food insecurity. She later grew her role with Extension to full time and then was hired as an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The VIA project worked with 124 families over eight years with a focus on low-income families. The perspective of female caregivers was central, she says, because they are very often the ones who do the shopping and food preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe talked with them about all facets of their lives \u2014 from what it\u2019s like to grocery shop with very limited SNAP benefits and limited income, to ways their broader environment shapes what they\u2019re able to do, such as their access to resources,\u201d Hardison-Moody says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The results spurred change within local communities, such as community action groups, she says. It was that project that led to the cooking equipment lending library in Lee County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While her work extends across North Carolina, Hardison-Moody brings these experiences back to her teaching at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I work with graduate students, I encourage them to think about their roles,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have a way to bring the university to communities (through Extension) that doesn\u2019t exist in this way outside the land-grant system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extension also has a unique ability to build relationships and build trust within communities, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat gets me really excited is hearing from and talking to people who are doing work in these local rural communities \u2014 that\u2019s really hard work because they\u2019re underfunded, understaffed, and don\u2019t have access to the resources we have in urban counties,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd yet, they\u2019re so committed to improving health and thinking about sustainable economic development in their counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the research side, we\u2019re identifying some real gaps in how we understand rural communities and what they look like, and how we should be working with them when it comes to health,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/MAH_Annie_Hardison-Moody-1024x564.jpg\")
Finding Her Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annie-Hardison-Moody-Ribbon-cutting-1024x574.jpg\")
Growing Stronger Communities<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Finding Her Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Growing Stronger Communities<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n