Cara B Ebbeling-Zabilansky

Cara B. Ebbeling, PhD, MS is a clinical researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, with more than two decades of experience in the fields of nutrition, kinesiology, and behavior change counseling. Dr. Ebbeling has a passion for developing, implementing, and evaluating intensive interventions for preventing and treating obesity and related co-morbidities in clinic and community settings. She is recognized internationally for her expertise in conducting randomized controlled trials to compare the effects of dietary interventions on anthropometric and metabolic outcomes, and has published her work in medical and nutrition journals including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She is leading development of a novel Community-Based Integrated Model for Weight Management that involves care coordination among primary care practices, community partners (youth development organizations), and obesity specialists (registered dietitians, health educators). Dr. Ebbeling has given scores of invited presentations at national and international professional meetings, and has testified at the Massachusetts State House on nutrition topics related to her research. In addition, she enjoys training fellows, medical students, and graduate students on methods for implementing dietary interventions and a wide range of clinical research methodologies, with particular focus on strategies to ensure treatment fidelity and scientific integrity. She served as associate editor for Obesity and guest editor for a special obesity issue of Clinical Chemistry, and is on the editorial board for Contemporary Clinical Trials. Dr. Ebbeling is a fellow of The Obesity Society and the American College of Sports Medicine. For The Obesity Society, she previously served as Chair of the Ethics Committee and is on the Nominating Committee and Finance Committee. She also served on the Science Board for the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.