Jillian Correia

About Jillian

(updated 6/2018) Jillian Correia is a 2017-2018 Luce Scholar based in Tokyo, Japan with a background in mathematical economics and a passion for addressing agriculture, natural resource, and energy resilience as well as broader economic challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region. Her placement has been with the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) at Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Tokyo.  Jillian first developed a passion for addressing natural resource management and agricultural sustainability while working for a Native American non-profit, the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, on the Kha’Po Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico.  There, Jillian facilitated The Pueblo Food Experience, a diet-improvement initiative where tribal members eat foods solely indigenous to their region and culture, equipping Pueblo peoples with the resources and inspiration to regain their health and traditional permaculture practices.  As an independent researcher, Jillian’s work examines political, socioeconomic, and institutional factors that influence food intake and human wellbeing.  She first set out to uncover the complexities of the multinational food system in UK primary schools, where her extensive field work and ethnographic research revealed the intricacies of children’s eating practices.  She presented her research at the 9th Annual International Conference on Sociology in Athens, Greece, and the findings, published in a peer-reviewed journal, served as inspiration for schools and policy makers looking to improve lunch practices through grassroots change.  Jillian’s subsequent research looked comparatively at food systems in the UK and Switzerland, and analyzed Multinational Time Use Survey Data to quantify time spent eating as a determinant of Body Mass Index (BMI).  At Wake Forest University, Jillian guest lectured for Freshman Year Seminars and other courses on cognitive development, ethnographic research methods, international food culture and policy, and independent research processes and proposals.  She was President’s Aide for the Office of the President, serving as liaison between the President of Wake Forest and the student body.  Jillian is Associate Editor and referee for  Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal , a peer-reviewed scholarly journal where she promotes food systems as a serious field of inquiry by offering theoretical and editorial guidance.  Jillian plans to pursue a career where she may continue leading efforts to address the serious political and economic challenges facing global food security.  In her free time, she enjoys vegetable gardening, creating sculptures and Raku pottery, and volunteering for Second Harvest Japan, Tokyo’s first food bank.