The Food Policy Lab
CHEWS is being run by the Food Policy Lab, a multi-disciplinary research program on the environmental and policy determinants of diet and food consumption, with a focus on equity & health-promoting innovations in the food system.
The Food Policy Lab is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and directed by Dr. Catherine L. Mah MD FRCPC PhD, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations in the School of Health Administration, Dalhousie University.
Caroline Beddoe | Research Manager
Caroline (Care) is the current Research Manager with the Lab. She brings a multi-disciplinary background and approach to her work. With a Master of Planning degree, and a B.A. (Hons) in Politics and Environmental Studies, Care is interested in the social and physical factors that affect how we live our lives and shape our relationship to the land, to our communities, and to ourselves. She is committed to building healthy, sustainable and vibrant communities, through policy and design.
Her recent professional and community work have been focused on equitable recreation research, policy and planning, community building for diverse ages and abilities, ecology-centred design, transportation policy, community food programming, agricultural policy, and facilitation and engagement. She is interested in the big picture and the fine details.
Care is excited to be on the FPL team, working with food and health outcomes in a new way. She is keen to bring her interest in process and organization to the lab, and in turn to learn lots about health research and policy!
Outside of Food Policy Lab work, Care can be found volunteering for local non-profit organizations, riding her bike, teaching kids to paddleboard, cooking delicious meals with friends, and learning circus aerial arts!
Dr. Catherine L. Mah | Principal Investigator
Dr. Catherine L. Mah MD (University of Calgary) FRCPC PhD (University of Toronto) is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations in the School of Health Administration at Dalhousie University. She is an internationally recognized scholar in nutrition and food policy and was appointed to Health Canada’s Nutrition Science Advisory Committee (2020-2023). She publishes widely in health and social science, including critical and empirical studies on the consumer food environment and its role in social equity, population diet, food access, and food affordability. In 2022, Dr. Mah was the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from Nova Scotia for exemplary public service.
Dr. Mah directs the Food Policy Lab, a transdisciplinary research program on environmental and policy determinants of consumption and diet. Her team is leading Canada's first national study of diet costs at the population level, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Their recent development of a digital National Nutritious Food Basket (dNNFB) examines variation in the cost of a healthy diet across Canadian population centres.
Among her network of scientific collaborations, she is a Chief Investigator for the Australian NHMRC-funded Remote Food Security study, an innovative co-design trial to examine the effect of a maternal-infant-directed store loyalty card price subsidy on diet quality and food security, led by University of Queensland (PI Dr. M Ferguson). Dr. Mah is co-investigator in INFORMAS Canada led by Université Laval (PI Dr. L Vanderlee); an Associate Investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health at Deakin University, Australia (PI Prof A Peeters); and member of the International Advisory Group for the first-ever study of the role of retailers and food environments in nutrition in Southeast Asia, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), led by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PI Prof BK Poh).
Previously, she was a Chief Investigator (senior) for the NHMRC Healthy Stores 2020 trial based at Monash University, Australia (PI A/Prof J Brimblecombe), a world-leading effectiveness trial of a complex healthier merchandising intervention on the nutritional quality of store purchases. Dr. Mah was Atlantic co-lead investigator for FLEdGE, a SSHRC global partnership on sustainable food systems based at Wilfrid Laurier University (PI Prof A Blay-Palmer); and a founding co-investigator of the CIHR PROOF food insecurity research team at the University of Toronto (PI Prof V Tarasuk).
Earlier in her career, Dr. Mah practiced community general paediatrics (2002-2009), and was a visiting scholar in medical humanities at Columbia University (2001), where her research focused on intertextuality theory. She has served in several appointments in municipal public health, as research and policy fellow with the Toronto Food Strategy team at Toronto Public Health, cross-appointed to the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. She was a fellow in political sociology at Kyoto University (2009-2010), where she examined intersections in public/private sphere governance in Japan's national food education policy, an extension of her doctoral work on immunization policy in Canada.
Dr. Mah was a former citizen member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (2011-2014); and founding member of the St. John’s Food Policy Council (2014-2017). Nationally, she was Canadian Public Health Association liaison member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (2014-2019) and appointed to the inaugural Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council reporting to the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food (2020-2022).
Currently, in addition to her role at Dalhousie, Dr. Mah holds scientific and academic affiliate appointments at Nova Scotia Health, Saint Mary’s University, and the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT (Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials) Unit.
Dr. Mah identifies as a racially visible 5th-generation Chinese-Canadian and a daughter of migrants. She resides in Nova Scotia.
Wei-Hsiu Liao | Research Assistant
Wei-Hsiu Liao is a Research Assistant with the Food Policy Lab. She completed her undergraduate degree in Medical Sciences at Dalhousie University (2025) and is currently a Master of Public Health Candidate at Brock University. As part of her MPH practicum, Wei-Hsiu is involved with the CHEWS project which is investigating the role of workplace food environments on overall diet quality.
Wei-Hsiu is passionate about promoting health and wellbeing through a public health lens, with a strong focus on the social determinants of health. She is interested in advancing approaches that support healthier, more equitable communities. Outside of research, Wei-Hsiu is engaging with communities through volunteer work and spending time at her dance studio.
Raziel Rosas Davis | Research Assistant
Bio coming soon.
Moriam Khanam | Senior Research Analyst
Raziel is currently an MHA candidate working in the Food Policy Lab. As an international medical graduate, the beginning of his career is in the clinical field, providing primary health services as a general practitioner. During his professional development he also became involved in the planning and logistics of medical services, this opens the door to explore new skills, a path that led him to participate in this great research team.
I know that healthcare is a complex and ever-changing environment, so I hope to become a well-rounded service provider and work on developing all my skills to create a healthier community.
Bio coming soon.