Eddy Jara manages the City of Riverside’s Nutrition Education Obesity Prevention Program, also known as Champions for Change. Through the Office of the Mayor and the Community Development Department, he works to improve youth and family access to healthy food and physical activity options.

For his doctoral dissertation at UC Berkeley, he looked at how to disseminate promising school food practices in working class communities of color.

At the California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program and the Departments of Public Health in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, he developed food and physical activity youth engagement projects.

At the Loma Linda University School of Public Health, he taught courses in community health interventions and food policy; he helped start the Food Policy Advisory Council serving San Bernardino County and organize student-run gardens at LLU and Sherman Indian High School.