Global Capacity Building in Nutrition Science: Training Future Practitioners, Empowering Future Leaders

Speakers

Organizer

Mandana Arabi, MD, PhD

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Speakers

Gayle Binney

The Dannon Company, Inc.

Gayle Binney serves as Manager of the Dannon Institute, an independent nonprofit foundation funded by Dannon to encourage and support continued study of the relationship between nutrition and health. In this role, Gayle promotes and executes nutrition education programs established by the Dannon Institute Board of Directors. The Board’s key areas for support include: 1) enhancing leadership skills in nutrition through the Nutrition Leadership Institute, an intensive leadership-training program for outstanding nutrition doctoral graduates; and 2) promoting children’s nutrition education through programs such as its School Wellness initiative, which is directed toward school superintendents, and Growing Leaps and Bounds, which empowers parents to create a healthy environment for their children from birth to age 5 by making smart food choices and encouraging physical activity.

Gayle is also the Manager of Corporate Responsibility at The Dannon Company, where she directs the company's philanthropic initiatives supporting children's nutrition education. The Dannon Company established the Dannon Next Generation Nutrition Grants in 2006 to promote childhood nutrition education programs in each of the four communities where a Dannon facility is located. In 2011, Dannon was recognized in the Reputation Institute's Corporate Social Responsibility Index as one of the 50 companies with the best reputations in the areas of citizenship, governance, and workplace practices.

Glenn Denning, PhD, MPA

Columbia University

Glenn Denning is Director of the Columbia University’s Center on Globalization and Sustainable Developmentwith a mission to mobilize the scientific expertise of the Earth Institute for multi-sector policy support to governments and development organizations. Denning also directs the Master of Public Administration in Development Practice program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs. He helped establish The MDG Centre, East and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, served as its first Director (2004 to 2009) and provided leadership to the Centre’s agenda in agriculture and rural development and its support to the African Green Revolution. He previously held senior management positions at the International Rice Research Institute and the World Agroforestry Centre, and has lived and worked in Asia and Africa for more than 30 years. Denning served on the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force (2004 to 2006) and is currently a member of the Senior Steering Group of the UN High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and the Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. He also serves on the board of the Tanzania-based Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development. Denning holds agricultural science degrees from the University of Queensland, a PhD from the University of Reading, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Jessica L. Escobar-Alegria, MSc

University of South Carolina

Jessica L Escobar-Alegría, MSc works for the Division of Nutrition and Obesity Prevention at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, and is a PhD candidate of the University of South Carolina, Department of Health Promotion Education and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health. Ms Escobar holds a Masters in Science on International Nutrition and Epidemiology from Cornell University, NY, USA (2004); and a bachelors degree on Nutrition and Dietetics from Universidad Evangélica de El Salvador (1998). She has worked in El Salvador for the United Nations World Food Program on Nutritional Surveillance, on vulnerable population's nutritional assessments during natural disasters, and on emergency relief operations (2006-2010); and for the Ministry of Health on the implementation of the national nutritional program on breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and baby-friendly initiatives (2004-2006). In addition, she has worked for the Pan-American Health Organization, Washington DC, USA as a technical officer of the Nutrition Unit (2003-2004). Her current research interest is on the sustainability of food security and nutrition policies and programs and socio-political analysis in Latin American countries.

Shibani Ghosh, PhD

Tufts University

Robert J. Karp, MD

SUNY-Downstate Medical Center

Nabeeha Kazi, MIA, MPH

Humanitas Global Development

Nabeeha Mujeeb Kazi is Managing Director of Humanitas Global Development (HGD), a Washington, DC-based international development agency. She has directed high-profile global food and nutrition security initiatives and designed advocacy, public-private partnership, community mobilization, behavior change and stakeholder engagement programs. The organizations she and her team have collaborated with include the New York Academy of Sciences, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, World Bank, World Health Organization, The Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, The Global Fund for Women, Save the Children, Kiwanis International, The Micronutrient Initiative, and UNICEF among others.

Prior to HGD, Nabeeha served as Senior Vice President and Partner at global communications firm, Fleishman-Hillard. She also worked for the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative developing national HIV/AIDS plans for Caribbean and African countries, and worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. Nabeeha serves on the boards of FINCA International and United Neighborhood Centers of America, and has served on a variety of taskforces and committees including those for Scaling Up Nutrition, Millennium Villages, Feed the Future and the New York Academy of Sciences. Nabeeha is a Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate of Kansas State University, where she majored in journalism and political science. She has dual master’s degrees in public health and international affairs from Columbia University.

Pamela A. Koch, EdD, RD

Teachers College Columbia University

Dr. Pamela Koch is the Executive Director at the Center for Food & Environment where she develops, evaluates and publishes curriculum for school-aged children that teaches them about the to understand that our food choices impact our personal health and the health of the natural environment. Additionally, Pam also does policy and system change work that can help make healthful foods the easy, desired, and expected choice.

Pam is the lead author of the Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) Curriculum Series with three modules: Growing Food, Farm to Table & Beyond, and Choice, Control & Change. Three National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) grants funded LiFE. Pam is also the lead author on the Food Day School Curriculum, the author of Studio in a School’s Art & Healthy Living Nutrition Curriculum, and worked with GrowNYCGreenMarkets to develop their Seed to Plate Curriculum. Additionally, Pam oversees the EarthFriends Program at Teachers College where students learn about “the whole story of food,” while having experiences growing, cooking, and eating whole, locally sourced foods. The curriculum and programs of the Center for Food & Environmentall use theory-based, behaviorally focused nutrition education that incorporate research-based elements of effectiveness.

Hunter Reed

F.A.S.T.NYC

Hunter Reed is President at F.A.S.T.NYC. fastnyc is a 501(c)3 solution-based organization, founded in response to the accelerating rate of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in New York City's children, as well as to the severe lack of nutrition education and physical activity programs in New York City’s public schools. fastnyc helps schools develop, implement and establish healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices through custom-built nutrition, exercise and sports programs, which are tailored to fit each school’s individual needs. fastnyc uses a coordinated approach by working closely with a school’s principal and parent association to help schools establish environments that encourage, inspire and support healthy eating and regular physical activity for its students and staff.

Christina M. Stark, MS, RD, CDN

Cornell NutritionWorks

Christina M. Stark, MS, RD, CDN, is a Senior Extension Associate with the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, where she has worked since 1981. She is currently the Program Leader for Cornell NutritionWorks, an online professional development program for nutrition and health practitioners at nutritionworks.cornell.edu. She has a BS in Consumer Food Science from the University of California at Davis, and an MS in Foods and Nutrition from Oregon State University. Prior to coming to Cornell, she worked in a similar position at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and was also a recipe tester for Bon Appétit magazine in Los Angeles. For over 32 years, she has been responsible for interpreting and communicating research based information on food and nutrition issues to extension educators, other professionals, consumers, and the media. Her most recent interests include providing continuing professional education to nutrition and health practitioners using distance technology.

Emorn Wasantwisut, PhD

Mahidol University

Emorn Wasantwisut (Udomkesmalee), PhD, is the Senior Advisor and Former Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand. She holds a current position of Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Wasantwisut holds a PhD in nutritional biochemistry and metabolism from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, USA (1985). Her post-doctoral training was at the Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, USA (1987). In addition, she is the Past-Chairperson, Scientific Program Committee of the International Congress of Nutrition 2009. She is a member of the Task Team/Transition Team of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement; WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group on Micronutrients; the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group (IZiNCG) Steering Committee; the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF); the Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND) project; the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Council; the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Partnership Council; International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Strategic Advisory Council; the Advisory Group of the New York Academy of Science Nutrition Science Research Initiative; Editorial Board of Food and Nutrition Bulletin and the Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Healthy Flavors Scientific and Public Health Advisory Committee. Her research interests include micronutrient assessment, bioavailability and metabolism; micronutrient interaction especially of vitamin A and zinc or iron and zinc; and micronutrient and immune function.

Debra J. Wolgemuth, PhD

Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Debra J. Wolgemuth, Professor of Genetics and Development and Obstetrics and Gynecology, is Associate Director for Research at the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center and also served as Director of the Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics program in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center for 15 years. She is the director of the Nutritional and Metabolic Biology (NMB) PhD training program (for the past nine years) and is the PI of the program’s recently renewed pre-doctoral training grant from NIDDK. She is also the PI of a new post-doctoral training grant on “Interdisciplinary training in nutritional and population health sciences”, also from NIDDK. In addition to serving as the Chair of the Training Committee of the NMB PhD Program, she has served on pre-doctoral training committees from the Department of Genetics and Development and the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies at Columbia. She also served on the Steering Committee for the NICHD/Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Reproductive Sciences Advanced Training Course and served as a consultant, under the aegis of a Fulbright Fellowship, to the Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy, advising on establishing graduate programs in basic sciences (including nutrition) and in public health. Dr. Wolgemuth received her PhD from Columbia University and did post-doctoral training at Sloan Kettering and The Rockefeller University in molecular biology and genetics. She is an internationally recognized investigator in the fields of developmental and reproductive biology and served as the PI for an NIDDK-funded Program Project Grant on “Genetic Studies on Vitamin A Metabolism and Actions” and recently led an NICHD-sponsored panel on the role of vitamin A in the control of male reproduction. In collaboration with Drs. Richard Deckelbaum and Bonnie Dunbar, she is currently developing PhD-level training programs in nutritional sciences in Eastern Africa.

Derek Yach, DSc, MPH, MBChB

PepsiCo

Derek Yach is Senior Vice President of Global Health and Agriculture Policy at PepsiCo where he leads engagement with major international groups and new African initiatives at the nexus of agriculture and nutrition. He has headed global health at the Rockefeller Foundation, has been a Professor of Global Health at Yale University, and is a former Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO). At the WHO, he served as cabinet director under Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland where he led the development of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. Dr. Yach established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the South African Medical Research Council. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles covering the breadth of global health. Dr. Yach serves on several advisory boards including those of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Chicago Council on International Affairs’ Agricultural Development Initiative, the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for Agriculture, the NIH’s International Centre and the World Food Program USA.

Additional biographies coming soon.