COOKING UP HEALTH
Getting Docs and Kids in the Kitchen
MEET OUR TEAM
Here to Help Nourish Students of All Ages
OSHER CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE HEALTH AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Academic Partner
Osher Center for Integrative Health (OCIH) at Northwestern University ascribes to the concept of “food as medicine”, and believes nutrition is critical to disease prevention and treatment. We have been exploring strategies to solve the current lack of adequate training in nutrition in medical school curriculum, with its downstream effect of a physician workforce lacking skills necessary to effectively counsel patients in how to change food-related behaviors. OCIH is a member of the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, a consortium of influential organizations committed to improving health through healthy eating and cooking.
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COMMON THREADS
Community Partner
Common Threads (CT) aspires to build communities that embrace healthy cooking, healthy eating and celebration of culture through cooking and nutrition education classes that encourage healthy habits which contribute to wellness. Since inception, CT has reached nearly 650,000 students and adults, trained over 17,000 teachers, and provided over 3.7 million snacks and meals with over 5 million hours of education. CT operates across the United States in partnership with schools, school districts, community organizations, and healthcare systems. A hallmark of the programming is hands-on, experiential learning by cooking. Past external and internal evaluations indicate that CT programming brings about statistically significant improvements in nutrition knowledge, exposure to, liking for, and consumption of vegetables, communication within the family about healthy eating, preference for home-cooked meals, and confidence in cooking skills. Common Threads’ curriculum has been reviewed and approved by Chicago Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, New York City Department of Education, and the USDA’s National SNAP-Education Toolkit. They are a proud member of the Healthy Out of School Time Coalition and National Ally of the CACFP program.
OUR SHARED MISSION
Community, Education, Prevention
Osher Center for Integrative Health is committed to optimizing the wellness of our patients and community through empowerment, education, and preventative patient-centered care. We aspire to transform healthcare through innovative clinical care; scientific research; & medical education of physicians and health care providers.
Common Threads believes cooking is a life skill. Through our hands-on cooking programs and nutrition education, Common Threads provides a preventative health program solution in urban schools to children, families and teachers in underserved communities.
MEET OUR FOUNDERS
MELINDA RING, MD, FACP, ABOIM
Co-course creator
Dr. Melinda Ring serves as Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University, and Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Medical Social Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
She completed her medical training at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. At Northwestern, Dr. Ring directs medical trainee education and clinical and faculty fellowships in integrative medicine, founded the Cooking Up Health culinary medicine course, and researches nutrition and integrative strategies. She contributes to textbooks, research articles in the field of Women’s Health and Integrative Medicine, has published several books on integrative medicine including The Natural Menopause Solution, and is a frequent contributor to news outlets.
Dr. Ring served as chair for the American Board of Integrative Medicine, is on the Steering Committee of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine and Global Advances in Health and Medicine. In 2021 she received the Bravewell Distinguished Service Award, one of the highest honors in the field of integrative health.
RUPA MAHADEVAN, MD
Co-Course Creator
Rupa Mahadevan completed a specialized fellowship in Integrative Medicine through the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University and the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Prior to medical school, Rupa worked as a nutrition counselor, and she is passionate about educating parents to cook healthy, low-cost meals for their children. After her fellowship she acted as Associate Director for Education at Northwestern’s Integrative Medicine Center and helped develop the CUH course.
She is a Pediatrician with a holistic approach to health and wellness and she believes the best medicine is teaching prevention through education. She has a unique interest in food as medicine and tries to incorporate food prescriptions in all her patient encounters.
Dr. Mahadevan currently directs the Lifestyle and Integrative Medicine Clinic focused on cancer survivorship and well-being at Feist-Weiller Cancer Center. She also runs a pediatric weight management clinic program and directs the culinary medicine program for LSU medical students.
STEPHANIE FOLKENS
Co-Course Creator
Ms. Folkens began volunteering with Common Threads in 2010 and joined the CT staff in 2011 as a Chef Instructor. She then held the roles of Program Coordinator, Curricula and Quality Assurance Manager, Director of Programs, and Vice President of Programs-overseeing the organization’s programs and education teams. She is now the Director of Food, Activity and Nutrition Initiatives at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
During her tenure at Common Threads, she worked closely with the evaluation team to refine culinary focused programs and piloted, designed and authored the CT Small Bites nutrition education program. Prior to Common Threads, Ms. Folkens worked as a middle school math teacher in Houston, TX, through Teach for America.
Ms. Folkens holds a culinary arts degree from Kendall College and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is currently pursuing an MBA through the University of Chicago Booth’s Civic Scholars program. She’s published in several academic journals including the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
