MSU Extension MSU Campus

Dr. Cheryl Eschbach is Director of Michigan State University Extension's Health and Nutrition Institute. She started her career with MSU Extension in 2008 as an Educator and Specialist, and has served in leadership since 2018. Cheryl directs teams and resources for community-based health, food safety, and nutrition education programming. She oversees budgets, staffing plans, performance management, strategic planning, partnerships, research projects, and content development.

As an Extension scholar, Cheryl has over 30 publications in peer-review journals. In 2024, she published a book with MSU Press, titled, “Health Extension: Community-Based Healthcare and the Future of Cooperative Extension.” This edited volume with 20 contributors explores innovation in Extension health programs, engaged scholarship promoting research-based information in communities, and the evaluation and documentation of community programs and their impacts. This work built upon her Academic Medicine publication in 2017, where she proposed, with colleagues, ways that the national Cooperative Extension System can serve as a Model of Health Extension within land-grant institutions and our nation's academic health centers and community-based medical schools.

Cheryl has a successful record of writing competitive grants and managing funded projects. Currently, she is P.I./PD of a grant from the U.S. HHS Administration for Community Living (2023-2027) that supports chronic disease self-management education and referrals from healthcare to community-based programs. Cheryl is P.I./PD of a USDA NIFA Rural Health and Safety Education grant (2024-2027) focused on improving sleep and chronic pain management for older adults and people living with disabilities. She is P.I./Co-P.I. of funding that supports MSU Extension’s farm stress outreach (2020-2025) and Michigan AgrAbility (2022-2026). She has experience as past Co-PI of EFNEP and SNAP-Ed funding in the state of Michigan and formerly was P.I./PD of the MVP- Michigan Vaccine Project (2021-2024) and MiSUPER – Michigan Substance Use, Prevention, Education, and Recovery project funded by SAMHSA Rural Opioid Technical Assistance (2019-2022).

Education

Ph.D.  Human Development and Family Sciences, Oregon State University.
M.S.    Family Sciences and Gerontology, Oregon State University.
B.A.    Psychology and Sociology/Anthropology, Oakland University.

Research Interests

Health Extension; aging; participatory and community-engaged research; connecting primary care with community-based education programs; referrals, program evaluation.

Highlighted Publications

Eschbach, C. L., Contreras, D. A., & Tiret, H. (in press). Referral Strategies for Recruitment and Engagement of Community Adults into Online Extension Health Programs. Journal of Health Sciences & Extension.

Bolkan, C., Weaver, R., Eschbach, C., Geissal, E., & Wise-Swanson, B. M. (in press). Community Partnerships to Address Social Determinants of Health among Older Adults. Journal of Health Sciences & Extension.

Eschbach, C. L., Weybright, E. H., & Dwyer, J. W. (2024). Health Extension: Community-Based Healthcare and the Future of Cooperative Extension. Transformations in Higher Education Series. Michigan State University Press. https://msupress.org/9781611865158/health-extension

Eschbach, C., Arnetz, B., & Arnetz, J. (2023). Designing and evaluating opioid misuse prevention training for rural communities and health care providers. Health Promotion Practice, 25(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399231174920

Eschbach, C. L., Contreras, D. A. & Kennedy, L. E. (2022) Three Cooperative Extension initiatives funded to address Michigan’s opioid crisis. Frontiers in Public Health, 10:921919. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.921919/full

Eschbach, C. L., Cuthbertson, C., Shelle, G., & Bates, R. O. (2022). Expanding effective behavioral health literacy programs to address farm stress. Journal of Extension, 60(2), Article 19. https://doi.org/10.34068/joe.60.02.19

Cuthbertson, C., Eschbach, C. & Shelle, G. (2021). Addressing farm stress through Extension mental health literacy programs. Journal of Agromedicine. https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2021.1950590

Tiret, H., Eschbach, C., Nichols, A., Smith, B., Riffe, J., & Clark-Jones, T. (2021). Lessons from two states with Extension programs for managing stress. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 9(1), 94-108.

Burton, D., Canton, A., Coon, T., Eschbach, C., Gunn, J., Gutter, M., Jones, M., Kennedy, L., Martin, K., Mitchell, A., O’Neal, L., Rennekamp, R., Rodgers, M., Stluka, S., Trautman, K., Yelland, E., & York, D. (2021) Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being. [Report of the Health Innovation Task Force] Extension Committee on Organization and Policy: Washington, DC Available at https://www.aplu.org/wp-content/uploads/202120EquityHealth20Full.pdf

Khan, T., Eschbach, C., Cuthbertson, C. Newkirk, C., Contreras, D., & Kirley, K. (2020). Connecting primary care to community-based education: Michigan physicians’ familiarity with Extension programs. Health Promotion and Practice, 21(2), 175-180. doi: 10.1177/1524839919868980

Eschbach, C. L., Tiret, H., Carter, E., & Newkirk, C. (2019). Preparing Extension educators for community-based research and grant partnerships. Journal of Extension, 57(6). https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol57/iss6/

Tiret, H., Eschbach, C. L., & Newkirk, C. (2019). Rx for Health Referral Tool Kit techniques to promote Extension programs. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 7(3), 173-185. 

Hetherington, C., Eschbach, C. L., & Cuthbertson, C. (2019). How evaluation capacity building contributes to credible evidence for Cooperative Extension programs. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 7(2), 175-188. 

Eschbach, C., Carter, E., Newkirk, C., Tiret, H., Millet, M., Cronk, L., & Dwyer, J. (2018). Using speed meetings to connect Extension experts with university health researchers. Journal of Extension, 56(4). Article 20. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol56/iss4/20

Dwyer, J., Contreras, D., Eschbach, C., Tiret, H, Newkirk, C, Carter, E., & Cronk, L. (2017). Cooperative Extension as a framework for health extension: The Michigan State University Model. Academic Medicine, 92, 1416-1420. https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2017/10000/Cooperative_Extension_as_a_Framework_for_Health.27.aspx