Positions
- Professor, CNRC Associate Director
-
Pediatrics
Nutrition; and Academic General Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX, US
- Adjunct Member
-
Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States
Addresses
- Texas Children's Hospital Clinical Care Center (Clinic)
-
Residents' Primary Care Group
6701 Fannin Street
Houston, TX, 77030
United States
Phone: (346) 227-7275
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center (Office)
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1100 Bates St; Room: CNRC-2034
Houston, TX, 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-6782
teresiao@bcm.edu
Education
- Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine
- Houston, Texas, United States
- MPH from University of Texas School of Public Health
- Houston, Texas, United States
- Residency at Baylor College of Medicine
- Houston, Texas, United States
- Pediatrics
- MD from University Of Wisconsin Medical School
- Madison, Wisconsin, United States
- BS from University of Wisconsin
- Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Professional Statement
Teresia O’Connor is a board certified, practicing general pediatrician and fellowship trained clinician researcher. Her research focuses on
a) Identifying strategies to best prevent and treat childhood obesity.
b) Providing better understanding of how parents (fathers and mothers) influence their children’s obesity-related behaviors through the framework of parenting styles and parenting practices.
c) Assessing how to use technology to improve the measurement of children’s obesity-related behaviors.
Much of her research is done under the auspice of promoting health equity among children in the Houston area, with a primary focus on Hispanic populations and culturally tailored approaches. She worked with a team to culturally adapt an obesity intervention targeting fathers and their 5-11 year old children, Healthy Dads Healthy Kids, for Hispanic families using the Ecological Validity Model to frame the adaptation (R34 HL131726-01). The efficacy of the resulting program, Papás Saludables Niños Saludables, is currently being assessed in a community based randomized clinical trial (R61/R33 HL155015). In collaboration with electrical engineers at Rice University, we developed a novel system to passively assess children’s technology and digital media use across devices (R01 DK113269, O’Connor/Veeraraghavan (co-PI)). Using a team science approach, our team of behavioral researchers integrated with the engineers to developed and test the machine learning approach that makes up FLASH-TV and validated the new methods among youth. The technology we developed are currently being used with other approaches to directly and passively measure technology and digital media use among a cohort of preschool children to assess its association to their sleep, weight status and executive functioning over the following 12 months (P01 HD109876).
a) Identifying strategies to best prevent and treat childhood obesity.
b) Providing better understanding of how parents (fathers and mothers) influence their children’s obesity-related behaviors through the framework of parenting styles and parenting practices.
c) Assessing how to use technology to improve the measurement of children’s obesity-related behaviors.
Much of her research is done under the auspice of promoting health equity among children in the Houston area, with a primary focus on Hispanic populations and culturally tailored approaches. She worked with a team to culturally adapt an obesity intervention targeting fathers and their 5-11 year old children, Healthy Dads Healthy Kids, for Hispanic families using the Ecological Validity Model to frame the adaptation (R34 HL131726-01). The efficacy of the resulting program, Papás Saludables Niños Saludables, is currently being assessed in a community based randomized clinical trial (R61/R33 HL155015). In collaboration with electrical engineers at Rice University, we developed a novel system to passively assess children’s technology and digital media use across devices (R01 DK113269, O’Connor/Veeraraghavan (co-PI)). Using a team science approach, our team of behavioral researchers integrated with the engineers to developed and test the machine learning approach that makes up FLASH-TV and validated the new methods among youth. The technology we developed are currently being used with other approaches to directly and passively measure technology and digital media use among a cohort of preschool children to assess its association to their sleep, weight status and executive functioning over the following 12 months (P01 HD109876).
Selected Publications
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Mihail S, Partida M, Villanueva L, Thompson D, O'Connor TM, Musaad SM, Redondo MJ, Soltero EG. " Community participatory co-design and development of a digital diabetes prevention education program for Hispanic families with obesity: Mixed methods study " JMIR Form Res. 2026 Feb ; 10 : e67800.
Pubmed PMID: 41671476. -
O’Connor TM, Garza T, Alam U, Kumar Vadathya A, Moreno JP, Beltran A, Haidar S, Haidar N, Hughes SO, Thompson D, Musaad SMA, Baranowski T, Mendoza JA, Young J, Sano A, Veeraraghavan A. " The feasibility of passively tracking children’s TV viewing and mobile device use in naturalistic settings " Behav Inf Technol. 2026 Feb ; 45 (3) : 564-575.
Pubmed PMID: 40857443. -
Musaad SMA, Mâsse LC, Beltran A, Perez O, O'Connor TM. " Factor structure of food and physical activity parenting practices among US fathers by ethnicity and survey language: A cross sectional stud " BMC Public Health. 2025 Oct ; 25 (1) : 3625.
Pubmed PMID: 41152826. -
de Mello GT, Szeszulski J, O'Connor T, Lorenzo E, Hill JL, Lee RE. " Effects of Sustainability via Active Garden Education on preschool-aged children's locomotor skills " Transl Behav Med. 2025 Oct ; 15 (1) : ibaf052.
Pubmed PMID: 41047236.
Memberships
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Society of Pediatric Research
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