Sharing through words what food does silently...

Barbara Worley, Ph.D. is a food and culture researcher and consultant.

Dr. Worley published her dissertation in Agricultural Science Communications in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication at the University of Georgia titled "Discuss Amongst Yourselves: Critical Discourse Analysis and a Dynamic Model of Food and Culture". Her primary research focuses on the relationship between food and culture through the use of discourse analysis. Via application of her model, the Dynamic Model of Food and Culture (DMFC), analysis of various facets of food and and its relationship to culture can be extended and executed on a global scale. By examining the dialectic tensions from both a historical and current perspective that exist between and within the constructs of food as 'Heritage', 'Power', and 'Practice', represented in the DMFC, discursive spaces are created to critique what has been misunderstood and underrepresented in the realm of food, culture, and community relations through a holistic, critical lens. Dr. Worley's framework, the Critical Approach to Food Exploration (CAFE), is a fundamental approach for analyzing food as a critical communicative component of culture in community-engaged and local food systems research. 

Dr. Worley graduated with a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Management and Society, a Masters in Extension Education from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science Communications from the University of Georgia. She also completed Ed.D. work from North Carolina State University studying International Extension, including research examining the socio-cultural, political, and economic effects of the Balkan war at the University of Zagreb in Croatia.

As a university field faculty member and Extension Agent for nearly two decades at three universities across the South (the University of Florida, North Carolina State University, and the University of Georgia), she specialized in chronic disease prevention, food safety, and food preparation education through the dissemination of research-based information. In April 2023, Dr. Worley joined NC State University as the Director of N.C. Cooperative Extension in Mecklenburg County where she focuses on community resource development and urban agriculture across the local food system. 

Over the last two decades, Dr. Worley has collaborated on projects with celebrity chefs, food and nutrition scholars, and appeared in various forms of print and broadcast media. From 2010 to 2015, she hosted "Fresh and Local", a cable television show that engaged viewers in learning how to prepare local, in-season products from North Carolina. In 2018, Dr. Worley partnered with John Burrell's High Adventure Company and was featured fishing for and preparing redfish in Louisiana on "Brush Country Monsters". The episode subsequently became Emmy nominated. She has also appeared in "Garden and Gun", "Sporting Classics Magazine", and in numerous university press features. She has written and contributed nutrition and food related content for news outlets across North Carolina and Georgia, and was a state media spokeswoman for the NC State University "Steps to Health" program. Other previous and current television and radio media engagement include WKXR, Fox46/QC News, OrangeTV, and RFDTV.

In addition to her expertise in food and culture studies, Dr. Worley also focuses research on agricultural innovations related to their overall global and domestic socio-cultural impacts, and offers implications in these areas using her model to convey cultural awareness. While at the University of Georgia, she participated in a USDA/SCRI multi-university research grant examining agricultural commodity and innovation communications related to the turfgrass industry. Her "Using Key-Player and Decision-Making Models to Increase Diffusion of Innovations in Turfgrass" research was presented at various national conferences throughout 2020-2022, and subsequent phases of this research have been published to date.

Dr. Worley's food and culture work has been published in the international peer reviewed journal Food, Culture, and Society, and presented at conferences and symposia both domestically and internationally. Moreover, her agricultural innovations and communications research has been published in peer reviewed journals including Advancements in Ag Development, the Journal of Agricultural Education, the Journal of Southern Agricultural Education Research, and the Journal of Applied Communications.

Barbara Worley, Ph.D. was born and raised in the Coastal Plain region of Eastern North Carolina. Additionally, she has resided in Georgia, Virginia, and Florida, to include the Florida Keys. She is now a resident of the Charlotte Metro area of North Carolina with her two rescue dogs and dressage horse.