Professor Sara Rosenkranz joined the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in fall 2022. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology (with honors) from the University of Kansas and completed both her master’s in kinesiology and Ph.D. in human nutrition at Kansas State University.

Rosenkranz studies how lifestyle behaviors—such as nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behavior, stress mitigation techniques, and social interactions—affect cardiovascular and metabolic health, as well as behavioral outcomes. Her work often examines how diet and exercise interact. Past projects have explored how the cardiometabolic effects of resistant starch products, the health effects of strawberry consumption, and how sedentary behavior contributes to chronic disease risk. She is currently leading a study on preventing type 2 diabetes using hands-on cooking education with and without additional lifestyle education components. Undergraduate and graduate students in her lab can gain hands-on experience in aspects of lifestyle interventions, including data collection methods for biobehavioral outcomes like fasting glucose, insulin, HbA1c%, lipid panels, inflammatory markers, blood pressure, and body composition.

Rosenkranz is an American College of Sports Medicine–certified exercise physiologist (ACSM-EP), and her research has been supported by organizations such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the California Strawberry Commission, MGP Ingredients, as well as an ongoing interdisciplinary partnership between the University of Nevada, Reno Extension, and UNLV. She is also a co-investigator on projects funded by the McCormick Science Institute and the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE). Before joining UNLV, she spent 10 years as a faculty member at Kansas State University, where she directed the Bridges to the Baccalaureate NIH program supporting first-generation and underrepresented students in biomedical sciences. She has also served as adjunct faculty for the NIH Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials and has extensive experience with systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and lifestyle interventions, including short- and longer-term randomized clinical trials.

At UNLV, Rosenkranz is the Graduate Programs Coordinator for the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences and Co-Chair of the Biomedical Institutional Review Board. She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and on the Scientific Program Committee for the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Her scholarly contributions include co-authoring an American Heart Association scientific statement on physical activity in the treatment of elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as the influential Sedentary Behavior Research Network (SBRN) terminology consensus paper. Current and future projects in her lab include developing multi-level lifestyle interventions for adolescent girls and expanding work in clinical populations, older adults, and sleep behaviors, offering a range of potential research opportunities for students.