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Ashlea Braun, PhD, RD

Ashlea Braun, PhD, RD

Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion Sciences, University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health

Ashlea Braun PhD, RD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Hudson College of Public Health, Department of Health Promotion Sciences.

Dr. Braun brings over ten years of experience as Registered Dietitian, and completed her PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Clinical and Translational Sciences at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2020. Her graduate training centered on the development, implementation, and evaluation of multi-component behavioral interventions designed to target dietary and lifestyle-related behaviors to improve cancer prevention and control. This included the use and evaluation of motivational interviewing, for which she is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network for Trainers. She then completed a position as a postdoctoral scholar, gaining exposure to policy- and environmental-related determinants of health behavior. Thereafter, she worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Oklahoma State University where she received funding as PI or MPI from the Health Promotion Research Center, the Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST), Oklahoma Shared Clinical & Translational Resource (OSCTR), and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Her research leverages behavior change approaches and assessment strategies previously validated and employed in substance use literature, including motivational interviewing, to understand and improve health behavior, dietary patterns, weight, and/or cancer risk.

Dr. Braun seeks to identify ways to support individuals in pursuit of behavior change despite increasingly challenging environmental, social, and psychological factors that inhibit or impede change. Her research program and expertise focuses on understanding the bidirectional relationship between food and behavior and leveraging this information to design behavior change interventions. This includes a particular emphasis on specific dietary components of interest (e.g., dietary fiber, ultra-processed foods), as well as the use of autonomy-supportive and empirically-driven approaches to behavior change, including motivational interviewing.

Education:

Degree-Granting Institutions

  • The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, BS with Distinction, Allied Health (Medical Dietetics), 2011
  • The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, MS, Allied Health, 2017
  • The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, PhD, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Clinical and Translational Sciences, 2020

Postgraduate Training

  • Postdoctoral Scholar, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Jan 2021 – Jun 2021

Funding:

CURRENT
Harold Hamm Diabetes Center Novel Pilot Project
Preliminary Examination of an Innovative mHealth-Based Dietary Fiber Intervention to Improve Outcomes in Young Adults with Prediabetes: A Feasibility Study”
$70,000 total cost (Year 1)
Braun A (PI)

Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) Health Promotion Research Center Seed Grant
Cooperative Extension and Cancer Survivorship: Supportive Care via Cooperative Extension Services (SUCCESS)
$100,000 total cost
Braun A, Hildebrand D (MPI)

2022 USDA AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program
Determinants and Outcomes of High vs. Low Ultra-processed Feeding
$336,980 total cost
Braun A, Emerson SR (MPI)

Center for Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST) Health Research Program
Dietary Fiber: Is it the Missing Link in Achieving Long Term Behavior Change?
$134,859 total cost
Braun A (PI), Emerson S, Lucas E

COMPLETE
Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) Health Promotion Research Center Seed Grant
Examination of Implicit Drivers of Ultra-Processed Food Consumption According to Weight Status and Retail Exposure
Braun A (PI), Cohn A (Co-I)
$50,000 total cost
07/01/2022 – 06/30/2023

USDA Pulse Crop Health Initiative
Pulse consumption improves gut health, metabolic outcomes, and bone biomarkers of postmenopausal women (Year 3)
Lucas EA, Smith BJ, Emerson S, Braun A (Co-I), Montgomery M, Zhao J.
$87,094 total cost
Feb 2022 – Feb 2023

Oncology Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Parental Motivational Interviewing for Pediatric Cancer Prevention
Braun A (PI), Spees CK, Houck J
$5,000 total cost
Dec 2021 – Feb 2023

Select Publications:

**Denotes work of a student mentee
§Denotes senior author 

  1. Hosseininasab D, Pal S, Emerson SR, Rhudy JL, Richards J, Lucas E, §Braun A. Gastrointestinal-Related Side Effects are Key Barriers to Dietary Fiber Intake. Nutr Health. In Press.
  2. *Revard H, *Corcoran S, Marick M, Hildebrand D, Joyce J, §Braun A. “I Feel Like It Should Be a Big Part of Our Training”: Feasibility and Perceptions of a Motivational Interviewing Training for Community Health Workers. Health Promot Pract. 15248399251322434.
  3. Braun A, *Corcoran S, Wollenberg G, McClanahan K, Liebe R, Businelle M, Joyce J. Advice over empathy: a national cross-sectional examination of communication in United States dietetic education. BMC Med Educ. 2025 May 10;25(1):686. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07254-z
  4. Braun A, Houck J. Advanced Motivational Interviewing Education in Nutrition and Dietetics Improves Use of Motivational Interviewing Among Graduate-Level Dietetic Students. J Allied Health. 2025 Spring;54(1):e77-e85.
  5. Braun AC, Portner J, Grainger EM, Clinton SK, Xu M, Darragh A, Pratt KJ, Weaver LL, Spees CK. Impact of Dietitian-Delivered Motivational Interviewing Within a Food is Medicine Intervention Targeting Adults Living With and Beyond Cancer. J Cancer Educ. 2024 Dec 21:1-7. doi: 10.1007/s13187-024-02552-4
  6. Braun A, Dickman A, Smith J, Garner JA, Spees CK. Examination of Motivational Interviewing in Dietetics Education: Current Practices and Recommendations for Entry-level Dietitian Preparedness. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2024 Nov 4:S2212-2672(24)00922-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2024.10.020
  7. Braun A, Smith M, *Garrett E, Cohn A. Adults Perceive Similar Ultra-Processed and Minimally Processed Foods As Having Different Levels of Healthfulness: Development of Stimuli for an Ultra-Processed Food Related Implicit Association Task. Nutr Health. 2024 Nov 25:2601060241299007. doi: 10.1177/02601060241299007
  8. *Pitasi O, Hildebrand D, Liebe R, Joyce J, Nagykáldi ZJ, Robertson M, §Braun A. Hiding in plain sight: Cooperative Extension as an underutilized approach to improving cancer survivorship outcomes in underserved populations. J Cancer Surviv. 2024 Oct 10. doi: 10.1007/s11764-024-01687-z
  9. Pamela Rothpletz-Puglia P, Smith J, Pavuk C, Leotta J, Pike K, Presley CJ, Krok-Schoen J, Braun A, Zhang FF, Spees CK. A theoretical explanation for how a nutrition counseling and medically tailored meal delivery program benefited participants living with lung cancer. Support Care Cancer. 2024 Jun 13;32(7):428.
  10. McClanahan K, Sanchez PG, Gant K, Joyce J, §Braun A. Perceptions of Preventable Cancer Burden Among US-Based Firefighters: A Mixed Methods Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 2024 May 1;56(5):300-9.
  11. Braun A, Portner J, Xu M, Weaver L, Pratt K, Darragh A, Spees CK. Preliminary Support for the Use of Motivational Interviewing to Improve Parent/Adult Caregiver Behavior for Obesity and Cancer Prevention. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023;20(6):4726.
  12. Braun A, Hartwell M, Montgomery M, Emerson S, Morris K, Greiner B. Prevalence of Metabolically Healthy Obesity in the United States: A cross-sectional evaluation of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Obes Res Clin Pract. Available online 28 October 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2022.10.009.
  13. Braun A, Hill E, Gallo S, Landry MJ, Vitolins M, Papoutsakis C, Jimenez EY, Rozga M. Research at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: What, How, and Why? J Acad Nutr Diet. 2022;122(11):2150-2162.
  14. Good M, Braun AC, Taylor CA, Spees CK. US adults fall short of the dietary guidelines for cancer prevention regardless of BMI category. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2022;122(9):1737-43.
  15. Braun A, Simons C, Kilbarger J, Hill E, Xu M, Cleary D, Spees CK. Sensory Perceptions of Cancer Survivors and their Caregivers Harvesting at an Urban Garden. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Mar 17.
  16. Braun A, Portner J, Grainger EM, Hill EB, Young GS, Clinton SK, Spees CK. Tele- Motivational Interviewing for Cancer Survivors: Feasibility, Preliminary Efficacy, and Lessons Learned. J Nutr Ed Behav. 2018;50(1):19-32.