Faculty Profile

Kendrin Sonneville

Kendrin Sonneville, ScD, RD

Dr. Sonneville is a registered dietitian, behavioral scientist, and public health researcher whose research focuses on the prevention of eating disorders among children, adolescents, and young adults. Dr. Sonneville uses a weight-inclusive framework to study how to promote health and well-being without inadvertently increasing body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and weight stigma.

Dr. Sonneville also holds an adjunct appointment at Harvard Medical School.

  • ScD (Public Health Nutrition), Harvard School of Public Health, 2010
  • MS Human Nutrition), Tufts University, 2002
  • BS (Nutritional Sciences)/BS (Dietetics), Michigan State University, 2000

Research Interests:
Adolescent health, body image, eating disorders prevention, epidemiology of eating disorders, nutrition counseling, weight bias, weight perception, weight-related communication

Research Projects:
Dr. Sonneville's research program includes observational studies of eating disorders, weight perception, and weight stigma, as well as experimental studies of weight inclusive approaches to health promotion such as intuitive eating.

Dr. Sonneville studies eating disorders disparities and examines weight bias from a social justice/equity lens.

Dr. Sonneville is a founding investigator of MyVoice, a national text message poll of youth. The goal of MyVoice is to lift up the voices and experiences of today's youth in ways that help local and national leaders create more youth-friendly policies and programs. https://hearmyvoicenow.org/ 

Dr. Sonneville is a collaborating mentor with Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) at Boston Children's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/ 

Schmid JC, Rose KL, Hadler NL, Amaro X, Frank A, Wilkie E, Chang T, Sonneville KR. Content analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on weight and shape control behaviors and social media content of U.S. adolescents and young adults. Eat Behav. 2022 Apr;45:101635. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2022.101635. Epub 2022 May 6. PMID: 35567879 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35567879/ 

Falvey SE, Hahn SL, Anderson OS, Lipson SK, Sonneville KR. Diagnosis of Eating Disorders Among College Students: A Comparison of Military and Civilian Students. Mil Med. 2021 Aug 28;186(9-10):975-983. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usab084. PMID: 33686412 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33686412/ 

Sonneville KR, Rose KL, Lambrecht NJ, Barry MR, Weeks HM, Leung CW. Weight bias among public health trainees. Public Health Nutr. 2021 Apr;24(6):1566-1569. doi: 10.1017/S1368980020004097. Epub 2020 Nov 10. PMID: 33168123 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33168123/ 

Sonneville KR, Mulpuri L, Khreizat I, Nichols LP, Plegue MA, Chang T. Youth Preferences for Weight-Related Conversations. Health Commun. 2020 Oct;35(11):1328-1333. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1631566. Epub 2019 Jul 10. PMID: 31290341 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31290341/ 

Sonneville KR, Lipson SK. Disparities in eating disorder diagnosis and treatment according to weight status, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sex among college students. Int J Eat Disord. 2018 Jun;51(6):518-526. doi: 10.1002/eat.22846. Epub 2018 Mar 2. PMID: 29500865 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29500865/ 

Sonneville KR, Thurston IB, Milliren CE, Gooding HC, Richmond TK. Weight misperception among young adults with overweight/obesity associated with disordered eating behaviors. Int J Eat Disord. 2016 Oct;49(10):937-946. doi: 10.1002/eat.22565. Epub 2016 May 24. PMID: 27218865 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27218865/ 


View full list of publications at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/kendrin.sonneville.1/bibliography/44013996/public/ 

Email: kendrins@umich.edu
Address: 3855 SPH I
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

For media inquiries: sph.media@umich.edu