Alison Ellen Field

Alison Ellen Field ScD, age 58, passed away peacefully at home in Newton Center, MA, on October 10, 2024, after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. She was born on August 8, 1966, in San Francisco, CA, to her loving parents, Carol and John Field, joining older brother Matt to complete their nuclear family. Alison graduated from Marin Country Day School, Lick Wilmerding High School, and UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in Psychology before attaining her PhD in Epidemiology from Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1995. Alison came from a family of academics and researchers. Her maternal grandfather, James D. Hart, was an American literary scholar and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Vice Chancellor of the University, Chair of the English Department, and Director of the Bancroft Library. He is most notable for writing The Oxford Companion to American Literature and A Companion to California. Her mother, Carol Field, was an American cookbook author and writer known for introducing Americans to the variety of Italian bread with her book The Italian Baker, designated one of the James Beard Foundation's Baker's Dozen, a collection of "indispensable baking books."

Alison was an internationally recognized epidemiologist specializing in childhood eating disorders. In 1996, while completing her post-doctoral fellowship at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital, she launched the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), a long-term study of eating disorders and obesity prevention and treatment. Joining Harvard Medical School's faculty in 1997, Alison was a Professor of Epidemiology and Pediatrics and had appointments at the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Channing Laboratory and Boston Children's Hospital in Adolescent Medicine. In 2015, she became a tenured professor at Brown University's Alpert Medical School, where she served as the Chair of the Epidemiology Department, Director of the Center for Epidemiology and Environmental Health, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the Brown University School of Public Health. In 2024, the Obesity Society honored her many professional accomplishments by naming an award in her name - The Alison Field Early-Career Award for Excellent in Research in Pediatric Obesity.

Alison loved to learn, loved to laugh, and loved to live. When she wasn't succeeding in her formidable career as an expert on causes of childhood obesity, producing groundbreaking research, she was an avid endurance athlete who never shied away from a physical challenge, especially when it came to skiing as many vertical feet with her husband, Eric, and daughter, Sofia, as a day would allow. Alison channeled an initial cancer diagnosis in her early 30s into marathon training, ultimately completing 10 races in five states over 15 years, including five Boston marathons, raising a cumulative $25,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Equally, some of her favorite moments were spent in her beautiful and happy home over a home-cooked meal discussing politics and world events with family and friends or tucked into a corner reading the latest bestseller or the news of the day. Alison could also be found traveling to magical places, especially to her nuclear family's adopted country of Italy, or hiking in the more-local-and-also-beautiful Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, with her three beloved rescue dogs, Sadie, Stuart, and Spencer. She had a wonderful sense of humor and was a loyal and committed wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.

Alison is survived by her husband, Eric, and daughter, Sofia (Newton, MA); her brother, Matt Field, his wife, Camilla, and their children, Alex and Owen (San Francisco, CA); her husband's parents, Sherry and Lou Senunas (Ann Arbor, MI), his siblings, Laura Pheiffer (Blacklick, OH) and Drew Senunas (Fontana, CA), along with their respective families; as well as many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and dear friends. She will be deeply missed by all who had the great privilege of knowing and loving this extraordinary woman.

"Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears." ~ John Lennon

In lieu of flowers, that family requests that donations be made in Alsion's memory to any of these worthy organizations.

Raising a Reader: https://raisingareaderma.org/

Mary's Dogs https://www.marysdogs.org/

The Obesity Society Alison Field Memorial Scholarship: https://tosdonations.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay (Please type "for Alison Field Scholarship" in the memo textbox.)