Dr. Larissa Strath

Larissa Strath moved to Birmingham, AL from Ontario Canada to complete her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience (Graduated 2021) under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Sorge, PhD. at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Larissa’s research involves nutrition and immune system modulation of pain in both animal and human models, as well as examining underlying causes of sex and racial differences seen in pain, and has published numerous manuscripts in various scientific journals. Larissa is an energetic, hard-working, fun-loving individual who has had a passion for helping other since a young age. Having been diagnosed with Celiac Disease as a teenager, she has also been interested in the way nutrition can influence health outcomes. After receiving a fellowship with the Albert Schweitzer Foundation in early 2019, Larissa joined the Cooking Well team to explore measurable ways to expand the initiative’s community-based health equity impact. She has been leading the development of the Cooking Well curriculum, as well as conducting experiments testing the efficacy of the Cooking Well program in order to increase positive impact.

As a leading research scientist, Dr. Strath is largely focused on the effects that dietary composition has on the modulation of the pain experience, specifically through epigenetic and immune mechanisms. Her experience includes cutting edge clinical and epidemiological opportunities over the course of her doctoral and postdoctoral training, throughout which she has been contributing her expertise to Cooking Well as Managing Director and Curriculum Development Lead. Larissa’s PhD work at UAB (PI: Dr. Robert Sorge) employed the use of nutritive models to identify factors that may contribute substantially to the development and perpetuation of chronic pain, with an emphasis on sex, gender and racial disparities. She has dealt with a variety of painful conditions and pathologies (i.e. chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia etc.) and understanding of nutrient status and their effects on the system at a variety of ages (i.e. inflammation and oxidative stress). Her areas of expertise include nutritional biochemistry, pain medicine, neuroscience, and epigenetics, all of which has been integrated into the fascinating and compelling Cooking Well curriculum she developed along with Masters level Dietetic Interns under our preceptorship. Larissa has extensive experience in the use of dynamic quantitative sensory testing, as well as experience investigating blood-based inflammatory and oxidative stress mediators and standardized measures of psychosocial assessment. Her current research interests center around understanding the nutri-epigenomic mechanisms that contribute to the pain experience observed in various types of acute and chronic pain. Larissa received the prestigious K99/R00 Pathways to Independence Award from the National Institute on Aging for one of her projects that revealed significant associations of nutrition status with pain and disability outcomes, as well as cognitive functioning. Dr. Strath continues to include the practical knowledge and data she has garnered in the process of developing Cooking Well’s effective impact in her science-based research while serving on the faculty at the University of Florida, and is integral in the on-going work of Cooking Well. Larissa visits her family in Canada often, and in her free time enjoys cooking, running, spending time with her fiancé and doing anything outdoors with her service dog, Greta, who has been a great encouragement (like Larissa) to everyone involved in Cooking Well, and may un-zip any moment to reveal that she is actually a human! 

Judith Park Vann

Judy Vann brings her life experience in creative marketing strategies and non-profit management to Cooking Well after having been immersed in nutrition and empowering people for over a decade with eMeals, the leading on-line meal planning service. Commissioned as an extension of eMeals to underserved local communities in Birmingham, AL, Judy collaborated with Christian Service Mission in 2016 to spearhead the development of a nutrition and culinary health initiative in the communities they serve with benevolent food distribution. Judy subsequently joined forces with Samford University’s Nutrition and Dietetic Department, University of Alabama in Birmingham and the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, launching Cooking Well as an independent 501c(3) non-profit organization in 2018. Cooking Well’s strategic position for impacting Central Alabama, the perfect “test kitchen” for any community in North America, has now expanded to include rural health challenges in Central Alabama. Judy has been inspired and taught by the women of Birmingham, where Cooking Well was birthed, is excited to have gained so many new friends in the process of bringing this initiative to life and is looking forward to Cooking Well’s future in lifting health and happiness in Alabama and beyond.

In Loving Memory

Jane Park Delaney,
BELOVED SISTER & EMEALS FOUNDER

Jane DeLaney’s favorite verse was Psalm 100:5 — “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Jane founded eMeals in 2003 as a life “hack” for Moms to make dinner doable and affordable as well as nutritious. Jane passed away in 2022 after a long battle with Multiple Myeloma. Her legacy endures through her amazing children, grandchildren, loving family and friends, and to ten of thousands of people she impacted through the on-going work of eMeals, Cooking Well and the women’s ministry she developed in Euless, Texas many years ago.

Jane and I talked for hours about the importance of dinner for the success of every child and the bond of every family, particularly how it is the one time of day you can focus your energy toward ensuring you are eye to eye, shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart around the table. Otherwise, life gets in the way that that bond can unravel! JV

(The Cooking Well Inspiration Kitchen located in Ashville, Alabama is dedicated to Jane’s legacy as well.)