Associate Professor
Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Cara B. Ebbeling, PhD, MS is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. She has over three decades of research experience in nutrition science, kinesiology, and behavior change counseling. She is internationally recognized for her leadership in designing and conducting randomized controlled trials to compare the effects of dietary interventions on anthropometric and metabolic outcomes. Her work has contributed to the evidence base informing dietary guidance and obesity treatment strategies for children and families.
Dr. Ebbeling is passionate about developing, implementing, and evaluating intensive interventions to prevent and treat obesity and related comorbidities in both clinical and community settings. She is leading the implementation of a community-based integrated model for childhood obesity prevention and treatment. With the child/family at the center, this model emphasizes coordinated wraparound services across sectors of healthcare, community, and the family home – to support sustainable, equitable, and patient/family-centered care.
Dr. Ebbeling has delivered numerous invited presentations at national and international professional meetings and has testified at the Massachusetts State House on topics related to obesity prevention and treatment. She also is deeply committed to education and mentorship – training fellows, medical students, and graduate students in a wide range of clinical research methodologies, with particular emphasis on strategies to ensure intervention fidelity, reproducibility, and scientific integrity.
Her editorial work has included serving as Associate Editor for Obesity (Pediatrics Section, 2011–2012), Guest Editor for a special obesity issue of Clinical Chemistry (2016–2017), and Associate Editor for Contemporary Clinical Trials (since 2022). She also served on the Science Board for the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition (2020–2021).