Amy Block Joy

Amy Block Joy is Cooperative Extension Specialist, Emeritus at the University of California, Davis best known for exposing fraudulent activity in a California nutrition education program. She specializes in nutrition and health disparities of diverse populations, nutritional ecology, and ethics.[1] She is an author and advocate for whistleblowers and employee rights.

Career

Block Joy earned a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Bacteriology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979.[2] The following year she was hired as a University of California, Berkeley campus Specialist in Nutrition. She took a sabbatical to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1992. There she developed a proposal to help poor families improve their economic and nutritional well-being, which was subsequently funded by the US Department of Agriculture.[2]

Upon her return to the US, she joined the University of California, Davis faculty in the Department of Nutrition.[2] From 1994, Block Joy was director of the UC Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, which provided nutrition education to low-income families throughout California. In 2007, Block Joy stepped down as director of the program.[3][4]

She was reassigned to a one-woman department, Nutritional Ecology, exploring topics including nutritional controversy, health impacts on the environment, nutritional policies, and food safety.[4] She also teaches undergraduate courses.

Whistleblower Report

In August 2006, Block Joy filed a whistleblower report over fraudulent activities within the UC Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program. UC Davis reached a settlement with Block Joy over retaliation for whistleblowing, paying her $89,611.[3] An investigation by the university and the US Department of Agriculture verified many of her allegations.[3][5] As a result, the California Department of Social Services withheld $2.3 million in funding from UC Davis and the program's participating counties.[3]

Published work

In 1985, she published "California EFNEP Evaluation Study" at Berkeley. It was the first experimentally-designed study of the effectiveness of nutrition education and discussed in the book New Directions for Evaluation.[6]

In 2006, she published the first cost-benefit analysis to measure cost effectiveness of nutrition education in California. The analysis is discussed in the 2016 version of Community Health Nursing: Caring for the Public's Health.[7][8]

Block Joy has authored three books about her whistleblower experience:

She began writing books in order to educate future whistleblowers.[5]

She is an associate editor of California Agriculture, a peer reviewed journal.[2] She has also published articles in Compliance and Ethics Professional.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "UC Davis Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources."
  2. 1 2 3 4 Berkeley Emeriti Times May 2011
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jones, Dave. "Whistleblower writes memoir about UC Davis case." UC Davis website. January 28, 2011
  4. 1 2 Georgis, Martha. "Book event to showcase instructor's emotional tell-all." The California Aggie. April 13, 2011
  5. 1 2 Greenwald, David. "UC Davis Whistleblower Tells Her Story Trying to Help Empower Others Suffering the Same Fate." The Davis Vanguard. February 4, 2011
  6. ↑ Brandon, Paul R. New Directions for Evaluation Wiley Periodicals Inc. 2016. Chapter 6.
  7. ↑ Community Health Nursing: Caring for the Public's Health. Jones and Bartlett Learning. 2016. ISBN 9781449687151
  8. ↑ Block Joy, Amy. "Cost-benefit analysis conducted for nutrition education in California." California Agriculture. Vol. 60 No. 4
  9. ↑ Stewart, James B. (2015-12-10). "He Was a JPMorgan Chase Whistle-Blower. Then Came the Blowback.". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  10. ↑ Joy, Amy. "Ethics and 'Breaking Bad': Developing and Practicing Ethical Skills." Compliance and Ethics Professional. May 2014
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