Members' Profiles L - R
I live between the Canary Islands, Barcelona, and the world, defending and promoting public health nutrition and, in particular, the traditional Mediterranean Diet.
The Mediterranean diet is an enormous cultural heritage accumulated during millennia and passed down uninterruptedly from generation to generation. It has evolved by welcoming and wisely incorporating new food items and techniques, thanks to its strategic geographical position, and its capacity of miscegenation and exchange of populations from the entire Mediterranean seaboard. It has been, and still is, a dynamic and vital cultural heritage.
Our society needs to be warned, informed and educated about the Mediterranean diet, to avoid its dilapidated descent into oblivion, which would have disastrous consequences for all of us who live in the region. Disastrous for our health and also for our agriculture, and traditional countryside, for this would cause a progressive abandonment of farmlands, with the consequent exodus of the rural population to cities.
Since 1996 I have been President of the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, a non-profit organisation (www.fdmed.org). The protection of the Mediterranean diet is an enormous task, involving resources that not all Mediterranean countries can afford. What's needed is international recognition, such as that of UNESCO including the Mediterranean Diet in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Spanish citizen, born in Barcelona in 1959. Medical doctor (MD, and also PhD). Professor of Public Health at the University of Gran Canaria, and also holds a UNESCO Chair. Director of the Public Health Nutrition Research Center at the University of Barcelona. Have authored more than 550 publications and around 200 indexed scientific papers. A total of 52 books written and edited, and around 200 chapters and editorials, prologues and presentations.
My book Nutrición y Salud Pública is a well recognised reference in the field. I serve as visiting professor for several universities in Europe and South America, and am President or Honorary Member of several foundations and scientific societies. President and founder of the NGO Nutrition without Borders and President of the First World Congress of Public Health Nutrition, held in Barcelona in 2006. Association Council member.
serra@dcc.ulpgc.es
Lois Englberger died in Ocrober 2011. Her profile will remain posted here
Here is my story! I was raised on a small farm in Northwest Missouri, and 4-H activities were an important part of my childhood. I was fascinated by the International Farm Youth Exchange (IFYE) program, which involved an experience living with families in overseas countries. After I finished my bachelor's degree at the University of Missouri at Columbia, I became an IFYE delegate myself, and was thrilled to go to India, where I lived for six months with host families in rural areas of Punjab, Kerala and Goa.
After my India experience in 1970-71, I was fortunate to join the International Nutrition programme at Cornell University with Michael Latham as my supervisor. I carried out a Master's research project in Bogota, Colombia. After completing my data collection, I took a 'quick' trip to the Yemen Arab Republic. I had met an interesting German agriculturist in India, and he invited me to visit him. How exciting to travel to Sana'a, and extend my research there...and we also got married! Later I worked in Yemen with the International Voluntary Services and the Catholic Relief Services in health clinics.
In 1980 we moved to the Kingdom of Tonga, where I assisted the government's National Food and Nutrition Committee, organizing activities, including a national weight loss competition. I had the privilege to work with the King of Tonga, who was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest monarch. He achieved an amazing weight loss (over 150 pounds) and encouraged a healthy diet and physical activity for his people. In 1997, we moved to Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), where I worked as a United Nations Volunteer with UNICEF and the FSM Government.
At that time the problem of vitamin A deficiency in children had emerged. We sought to alleviate this problem with locally grown green leafy vegetables and other internationally-advised foods. However, many Micronesians explained that they considered greens as food for the pigs and said that greens had never been an important food for them in the past. Vitamin A deficiency had not been a problem in the past but had emerged after a shift to eating rice and other imported processed foods. Evidently something in the traditional diet had previously protected people against vitamin A deficiency.
Micronesians started describing an interesting yellow/orange-fleshed banana variety called karat, which had been a traditional infant food in the past. I sent karat for analysis (not a simple task, as the laboratories are far away from Micronesia, with no direct flights or other transport). The results were truly amazing! Karat banana is very rich in beta-carotene, other carotenoids and other nutrients, including riboflavin. We promoted karat, and were delighted as it started to appear in the local markets, although it had not been sold previously.
This work led me to carry out a PhD at the University of Queensland, a multiple methodology ethnographic study, assessing the natural food sources of vitamin A in FSM. My work led to the identification of many yellow-fleshed carotenoid-rich banana, giant swamp taro, pandanus and breadfruit varieties. These can be promoted to also alleviate diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which have become problems of epidemic proportion in Micronesia. My thesis received a Dean's Commendation.
Then I returned to Micronesia and worked with my local colleagues, planning ways to promote local food and to reverse the trend towards imported processed foods. In 2004, we formed a non-governmental organisation, the Island Food Community of Pohnpei (see www.islandfood.org).
How exciting it has been to see this organization grow! In 2005, we joined the global health project led by the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University, Canada, and warmly thank Professor Harriet Kuhnlein and the CINE team. We documented the traditional food system in a target community and promoted local foods for health, using the slogan 'Let's go local', and stressed the CHEEF benefits of local foods: culture, health, environment, economy and food security.
A major challenge is that local food has been associated with poverty, as consuming local food may be perceived as having no money to buy rice or other marketed foods. The paucity of research on local foods led to incorrect perceptions. For example, many people (including expatriates) considered taro as 'just starch'. This is far from the truth: giant swamp taro is rich in fibre, iron, calcium, zinc, and provitamin A carotenoids. Local foods are also less convenient and more expensive than imported processed foods.
What challenges we face, but how exciting that our target community achieved significant dietary improvement and an improved attitude to local foods. We also see a growing interest by Micronesians in the nutrient content and scientific properties of their own foods. So let's go – and stay – local!
US citizen. Mother of two, grandmother of one. Member of the American Society of Nutrition. Named by Pacific Magazine in 2006 and 2007 as among the Pacific Leaders for the Pacific.
Consultancies with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Asian Development Bank, working in FSM and other Pacific Island countries; United Nations FAO expert consultant on biodiversity indicators for nutrition. Site supervisor for 14 Master's degree candidates from US and Canadian universities, and trainer for many local Micronesian students.
nutrition@mail.fm
I have come a long way in my journey towards public health nutrition. In the beginning I enrolled for studying medicine, thinking that I could help to healing sick people. I quickly realised that real healing is scarce, and what health professionals mostly do is to diminish the damage done by illness, without solving the underlying problems.
My next step was to look for prevention, falling in love with nutrition and the broad spectrum of views that it gives. I wanted to stay in the field; so I got my master's and PhD degrees in nutrition, always searching for the biological determinants of the diseases associated with overnutrition. This is how I arrived at public health. I knew that the obesity epidemic, very serious in my country, has socioeconomic determinants. I could not longer study the cell without looking into the public policies that allow this cell to increase in size.
Now I stay interested in the biological determinants of illness, but I am taking more and more into account the social and economic framework for all these biological interactions In this way the basic and clinical research make sense, in this way I do not lose perspective.
For the last couple of years I have been working at the public health nutrition unit, at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), University of Chile. My field of study is obesity and obesity related diseases, mostly in children.
Chilean citizen. MD, MSc, PhD. Full time position as a professor at INTA, University of Chile. My research field is obesity, mostly at the celular and clinical level. I am currently getting involved with work in public health nutrition, regarding food regulation.
marcela.reyes.j@gmail.com
I grew up as one of five children on a dairy farm in an isolated region of Victoria, Australia. We kept chickens for eggs and meat, raised pigs, sheep and cattle and also hunted rabbits. The vegetable garden was the size of suburban house block. From a young age, all of the children took turns in helping in the dairy, carrying wood for the wood stove and preparing vegetables for the evening meal. The kitchen was the hub of the house and cooking was a family activity. My fondest memories are of expeditions with friends and family to collect wild berries, mushrooms and fruit in abandoned orchards.
I trained as a dietitian due to interest in food and health, but soon found that I was more interested in prevention than clinical management of nutrition problems. I undertook training in nutritional epidemiology and became involved in national dietary surveys and studies of determinants of eating behaviour. Early career appointments in state-wide public health and health promotion cemented my commitment to public health nutrition.
Australian citizen. I managed the nutrition and physical activity programme for the Western Australian Department of Health for 15 years and now work as a public health nutrition consultant to state and national governments, universities, research institutes and health NGOs. Currently Principal Investigator, SCOPE (Starting Child Obesity Prevention Early) at Child Health Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth Australia.
m.miller@ecu.edu.au
I've always loved food. I grew up in the World War 2 years of rationing and deprivation but got sent to a small camp in Vermont one summer run by a fabulous cook. She and her husband had spent many years in China and she knew what to do with fresh ingredients. She ran a large 'Victory' vegetable garden and if we were good campers, we got to pick vegetables for dinner. I tasted everything, and a freshly picked green bean warm from the sun was a revelation.
I went to college hoping to study about food but there were only two choices, agriculture (but I'm a city girl) and dietetics. I picked dietetics by default, and lasted exactly one day. The next year, I tried public health but it was so easy for me that I thought I wasn't learning anything. It didn't occur to me at the time that it was easy because I think like a public health person, and it took a long time to get back to it.
I ended up a scientist and didn't rediscover food until my first teaching job in the Brandeis biology department. The department had rules that instructors could only teach the same course three years in a row (so it wouldn't get stale) and you had to teach whatever was needed whether you knew anything about it or not. I was given a nutrition course and it was like falling in love. I've never looked back.
I taught nutrition to medical students at UCSF for eight years and when that job fell apart (I was fired, basically), I was told I had better get some nutrition credentials so I went to public health school, and food, science, and public health came together at long last.
My current interest in the role of the food industry in food politics dates from the early 1990s when I was invited to speak at a meeting on behavioural determinants of cancer sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and run by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Most of the speakers were anti-cigarette activist physicians and one after another showed slides of cigarette marketing in remote regions of the world. One showed slides of cigarette marketing aimed at children. I had seen such marketing, of course, but never paid much attention to its pervasiveness or invisibility. I thought: we should be doing this for Coca-Cola.
I started noticing and writing articles relating aspects of food marketing to obesity. The result was Food Politics. Soon after it appeared, I stopped chairing my department, after 15 years, which freed me up to do more writing. The department now links nutrition, food studies (a field we started in 1996), and public health—three fields that are inextricably linked in the way I think about public health.
US citizen. Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University; chair from 1988-2003. Also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. Degrees include PhD in molecular biology and MPH in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Have held faculty positions at Brandeis University and the UCSF School of Medicine. From 1986-88, senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services, and managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health.
Author of several prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002, revised edition, 2007); Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (2003, revised edition 2010), What to Eat (2006); and Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine (2008). Newest book is Feed Your Pet Right, co-authored with Malden Nesheim, published May 2010. Writes a monthly Food Matters column for the San Francisco Chronicle; blogs almost daily at www.foodpolitics.com and at the Atlantic Food Channel at http://amcblogmte4.atlantic-media.us/food/nutrition; and twitters @marionnestle.
My very first nutrition job involved translating dietary survey findings into interventions designed to improve ways of life of local school communities. This was in the mid-1980s post-Ottawa Charter health promotion era in Australia. We quickly learned that these programmes had limited value when the wider environments within which people lived frustrated healthy eating. Within indigenous communities, for example, it was not uncommon to have fruit and vegetables unavailable in remote stores, while cans of cooled soft drinks were readily available in manufacturer-supplied refrigerators.
During this period I was fortunate to work with a number of generous mentors and to be inspired by public health nutrition leaders including Barbara Smith, Mark Wahlqvist and Tim Lang. They challenged and taught me to extend the scope of my thinking, from nutrient concepts related to individuals' diets, to the broader relationships that exist between food systems and population health.
In the 1990s I managed the Victorian Food and Nutrition Policy, and later the Nutrition section of what is now Food Standards Australia New Zealand). I learned that current food policies and regulatory environments are creating food systems that are non-sustainable, inequitable in provision of affordable and nutritious food, and that contribute to the escalating prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases. Public health nutritionists are especially well placed to challenge the business-as-usual model for food systems and provide evidence-based solutions.
Today I work at a university-based food policy unit that is actively involved in public health nutrition research, teaching and advocacy. Our goal is to reform food policies and regulations so as to improve the structure and operation of food systems so as to protect and promote environmental, economic, social and health outcomes. I've learned that while providing evidence to inform policy and practice is essential, evidence doesn't speak for itself. I have needed to increase my critical analytical skills to appreciate the roles of politics, contexts and stakeholders in explaining how and why food policy is made in practice.
If we better understand policy-making, we are better placed to integrate public health nutrition considerations into decision-making processes and therefore improve policy outcomes. Also I've continued to learn the value and rewards of working closely with colleagues who are passionate about food policy research, teaching and advocacy. Many colleagues work in disciplines such as law, environmental science and economics that complement public health nutrition. They are providing the expertise to review legislation, and to understand where to intervene in components of the food system and develop cost-effective policy solutions.
Australian citizen. Associate Professor (Public Health Nutrition), Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Director, Food Policy Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University and Chairperson, Victorian Food Policy Coalition. Member of: the NHMRC Dietary Guidelines Working Committee; the Victorian Food Safety Council; and advisory committees for Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
Actively involved in food policy research and practice in Australia and Pacific island countries, with emphasis on environmental sustainability, social equity and nutritional health outcomes. Convenor of Public Health Nutrition teaching at Deakin University. Co-edited (with Tony Worsley) the reference book, 'Public Health Nutrition: From Principles to Practice', Allen & Unwin, 2007 and currently preparing a book analysing the science, ethics and politics of mandatory folic acid fortification. Association Secretary-General.
lawrence@deakin.edu.au
I was born in São Paulo in 1964. My parents were Portuguese descendants with low literacy. My father was diabetic and died from heart attack when I was 17. I attended public schools and then studied nutrition at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. All my father's family members were overweight and diabetic. My mother died when I was 28 from cervical cancer. Like so many Brazilians my parents got sick as a consequence of their dietary practices, ways of life, poor health care and assistance, and I believe they were also victims of tobacco and unhealthy food marketing.
I want to make a difference in my country teaching and doing research with a focus on public health nutrition. The advance of knowledge in nutrition should follow an outstanding pattern with a clear commitment to public health.
Brazilian citizen. Associate professor of nutritional epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP). Until recently I was director of the first graduate programme in public health nutrition in Brazil. I have master's and doctoral qualifications in food science and in experimental nutrition (1992 and 1995, respectively). In 1995-1997 I lived in Japan for post-doctoral training in nutritional epidemiology with a scholarship for young scientists from the Ministry of Education, Brazil. Considering the nutritional transition in Brazil, I have been working on nutritional surveys in the Amazon region and also on epidemiological studies of diet and chronic diseases, mainly diabetes and cancer, and also studies on dietary assessment methods. Our previous papers on diet and chronic diseases have shown the importance of a large consumption of fruits and vegetables to prevent and/or control obesity, type 2 diabetes and cervical cancer in Brazilian adult population. In child health, we have described a comprehensive diagnosis of health and nutritional conditions in a typical Amazonian county, Acrelândia, which has a basic economic development model adopted in recent years, with socioeconomic indicators that are substantially lower than the national average. The fieldwork has been done with the participation of community health agents, nursing students from Federal University of Acre, and university level health professionals with training and local supervision by our research team. Our research team has been working in the assessment of environmental conditions and child health status (including assessment of anthropometric indices, biochemical indicators and morbidities - diarrhea, respiratory diseases and other infections), and providing basic health information and training for health workers, mothers and children, including cooking workshops to increase the consumption of local fruits and vegetables. Additional information in Portuguese, English and Spanish can be found at the blog http://www.frutosnorte.blogspot.com
marlyac@usp.br
I grew up in Germany and graduated as a medical doctor. During my time at medical school I got interested in international health and went to West and East Africa. In 1978 I was excited by the idea and the concept of the Alma Ata Declaration of Primary Health Care. After two years of postgraduate training I joined the German Volunteer Service and worked for two years in the primary health care programme of the then southern region of the Democratic Republic of Sudan, Kajo Kaji sub-district. This experience of primary health care, really oriented on empowering people with regard to health, determined my future career in paediatrics. This was before I joined the nutrition community, when I got my current post as a permanent professor of human nutrition with a focus on international nutrition.
I consider empowering people to overcome their health and nutrition problems as the only way to sustainably solve these problems. This in practice means to look at their resources and capacities first. Technologies are needed to make better use of the resources and help people to develop their potentials to the full extent.
German citizen, based in Frankfurt, Germany. Permanent professor of human nutrition with focus on international nutrition and pediatrics, Justus-Liebig-university, Giessen. Visiting professor of the universities of Vienna and the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel. Executive director of the International Society of Tropical Paediatrics, advisor to the German federal ministry of economic cooperation and development, consultancies for the German international aid agency GTZ, German Agro Action, WHO, and the German Academic Exchange Service. Member of the scientific board of the German Society of Nutrition, chairman of the German Association of Tropical Pediatrics and the Hermann-Mai-Foundation, Germany. Editor of 'Medical Practice in Developing Countries' (with Herbert Renz-Polster), Jungjohann, Lübeck, 1995. Association founder member.
Michael.Krawinkel@uni-giessen.de
Michael Latham died in April 2011. His profile will remain posted here.
I was born in Tanzania where my father was a doctor. From early childhood my goal was always to attend medical school and then to return to Tanzania to do the kind of exciting and humanitarian medical and public health work that as a schoolboy in Africa I saw my father doing. I achieved that ambition, and to this day I think that my most meaningful, educational and significant job was in the six years I spent as a 'Bush Doctor' running a hospital, doing surgery, obstetrics, and everything, and being responsible for the public health services in a large district.
This also was my introduction to nutrition. I conducted and published research on the control of anaemia, and I worked on a multi-disciplinary applied nutrition project in remote Songea District. As director of the nutrition unit I was overseer, and in charge of all nutrition activities in Julius Nyerere's new government. In Dar es Salaam I was considered to be the founder of the International School of Tanganyika, and served as the first Chairman of its Board of Directors. This was the first non-racial school in Tanzania, and it has continued to thrive.
My political awakening came when as an 18 year old medical student I participated in an anti-nuke rally in Trafalgar Square in London where the main speaker was Bertrand Russell. I have remained an activist. I led and was arrested for anti-apartheid demonstrations at Cornell, and was much involved there, with Daniel Berrigan and others, against the Vietnam war. I have for many years been very involved in activities and writings on human rights to food, adequate nutrition, and health
I am a medical doctor with graduate degrees in Public Health (MPH, Harvard University) and Tropical Medicine (London University), with internationally recognised expertise in the major nutritional problems of economically developing countries. In research, teaching and public service I have been particularly involved with breastfeeding, infant and child health; parasitic infections and their relationship to health; micronutrient deficiencies especially iron deficiency anaemias and vitamin A deficiency; and also nutrition and human rights. In collaborative research demonstrating the impact of intestinal helminths and schistosomiasis on nutritional status and health, Dr. Lani Stephenson, my wife and colleague, was often the principal investigator.
For ten years I worked in Tanzania as a physician, and then as Director of the Ministry of Health Nutrition Unit. Then for 25 years I served as director of the Program in International Nutrition at Cornell University, which during this period grew into the largest most widely recognised such programme at any university in the US; and then as Professor of International Nutrition until 2004 and now as a graduate school professor, emeritus professor and international professor. I am the author of several books, and over 400 published chapters or papers.
At Cornell I have been the mentor and advisor to over 100 graduate students, mostly PhDs, many of whom have moved on to important careers in international nutrition all over the world. I am still much involved with graduate students in international nutrition; occasional teaching both undergraduates and graduates; research mainly in Africa; and public service including work with United Nation agencies.
Over the years I have conducted research on many topics relevant to international mutrition. Among these have been many studies on young child feeding, intestinal parasitic infections, and interventions to reduce Vitamin A deficiencies and anaemia. I have taken a leading role in policy related to breastfeeding and HIV/AIDS. This recently included an African four-country study for UNICEF and major talks in Vienna, Venezuela, Washington, Boston, Alabama, Antwerp, Durban and Vancouver, to mention a few.
A British citizen, and now recently also a dual UK-US citizen. MPH Harvard, DTM&H London University, MD Dublin University. Professor of International Nutrition at Cornell University, 1968-2004, since then Emeritus and International Professor. Areas of expertise include medicine, public health, international nutrition, tropical medicine, child health, breastfeeding, micronutrient deficiencies.
In 1965 I was appointed OBE for distinguished service in Tanzania. In 1992 was awarded the Gopalan Oration Gold Medal. In 1993 was the first recipient of the Kellogg International Nutrition Prize of Society for International Nutrition Research of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences. In 1995 was given the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action Award for outstanding contributions to WABA and breastfeeding. In 1996 was visiting professor, University of Oslo, Norway, and in 1999 adjunct professor, Laval University, Canada. In 2005 was presented with Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Public Health Association. In 2009 I became identified as a Living Legend at the International Conference on Nutrition in Bangkok.
mcl6@cornell.edu
I was born in Montreal in 1948. My parents were English; they moved to North America to escape the European post-war austerities. I grew up in the suburbs just outside New York City. Some of my earliest memories are of the diversity of cultures and experiences that the city had to offer, and I loved trips to England and France as a child. So I went back to Montreal for university, and then moved to England in 1971.
While still at University, by chance I was invited to work with Myron Winick and Pedro Rosso in the sub-sub-basement of New York Hospital to investigate nutritional factors that turned cellular growth on and off. This was pre-genomics days, and our research by today's standards was pretty crude. It involved measuring the DNA and RNA content of the harvested organs of malnourished rats. I quickly realised this was not my first choice of career. But it awakened an interest in better public nutrition. We were trying to find out what controlled cellular division and growth so we could turn growth back on in malnourished children living in Jamaica. Instead, I learned that politics, education and income inequality were at the heart of problem.
So I went on to do an MSc and then a PhD in nutrition in England (with a short interval in Wales as a hippie with my own smallholding). Most parents want to do the best by their children and to help them grow up into healthy and happy adults. I see nutrition and healthy ways of life as central to that development. But increasingly, either lack of resources or commercial pressures mean that the healthier choices are not always available. I see academic research working hand in hand with government as the way forward. Together they can create the right physical and social environments and the commercial markets to sustain good health. Then commercial interests will follow. But this will happen only if we make our research accessible to a wide range of stakeholders (not just government and not just commerce). And for that to happen, we need to be thinking more strategically about how we market our evidence of the need for change and understand what drives choice at government, local and individual level.
British citizen. My first proper job was as a researcher investigating causes of poor growth in families living in poverty in London. In 1977, I went to work at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge to explore the validity of the findings from the National Food Survey (this had been running since the 1940s but no one had ever thought to question the validity of the measurements being made). In 1980, I moved to the newly formed MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit under the late Donald Acheson where I learned my epidemiology and statistics, and in 1985 joined the staff at King's College London to teach nutritional epidemiology and research methods. I was still interested in issues around child growth and development and health inequalities, and these have really shaped my research career.
I am a Reader in Public Health Nutrition at King's College London, and since 2006 have been the Director of Research and Nutrition for the School Food Trust (a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families). Our task is to improve school food in England and to increase the number of pupils eating a school lunch every day (currently around 40 per cent). The research team has a key role in monitoring take up and the quality of school meals and providing guidance to caterers, parents, pupils, schools, and to local, regional and national government. We believe that an integrated 'whole school''approach to healthy food in the dining room and in the curriculum is central to tackling childhood overweight and obesity. We also carry out research (for example, showing how better food at lunchtime helps to improve behaviour and attainment) and work to stimulate others to carry out research in this area, because we know the findings are central to convincing head teachers and parents that healthy school food is important.
michael.nelson@sft.gsi.gov.uk
I grew up in a small city in the western part of Denmark. From around the age of 14 I was sure that working in the field of nutrition was my 'calling'. So I started studying nutrition and food technology at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, and I got my master's degree in 1986.
I have been actively involved in setting up and running a number of different public health nutrition initiatives. These include efforts to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. My role has most often been to provide leadership for public-private partnerships: Creating excitement and ensuring the ownership and continue support of partners is high on my list of priorities and expertise. My focus is on policy and environmental change rather than communication and nutrition education.
Danish citizen. I work for the Danish Cancer Society and have done so since 1991. I am now head of the Society's Nutrition and Physical Activity department. I serve as vice chairman of the Danish Whole Grains Campaign and also the Danish 6 a Day campaign. These are jointly funded and steered by government, NGO and relevant industry partners.
mm@cancer.dk
My commitment is to keep nutrition on the agenda of my country and region. I have devoted my career to develop and expand the nutrition and dietetics programme in Lebanon, seeking national, regional and international recognition, and to establish nutrition and dietetics as a recognised and respected profession in the region.
I earned my PhD in basic medical sciences (nutrition) from the American University of Beirut, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University – St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. I am also a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association.
Lebanon and the countries of the Middle East face unprecedented nutrition transition challenges. To tackle nutrition problems related to health and well being of the people of Lebanon and the region is essential to me. I established the first academic programme in nutrition and dietetics in the country and the region at the nutrition and food sciences (NFSC) department at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. The programme has grown from an unknown specialty to a highly recognised and sought-after field of study. In recognition of its contribution to nutrition, the NFSC Department was designated as a WHO Collaborating Center for research, training and outreach in food and nutrition in December 2007, where I act as the head of the center. The first country-wide associated research unit for undernutrition and obesity in Lebanon was established in 2009.
I have directed my research on nutrition in Lebanon and the region focusing on obesity, its prevalence, determinants, and dietary manipulation to curb its effects. In addition, I have provided Lebanon with the first country profile on nutrition. I founded the first NGO for nutritionists and dieticians in Lebanon and the region, the Lebanese Association for Nutrition and Food Sciences (LANFS). Through LANFS, I formulated the national decree for licensing dietitians by the Lebanese government; hence making dietetics a protected profession in the country.
Lebanese Citizen. Currently Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, and Professor in Nutrition .Founder and President of the Lebanese Association for Nutrition and Food Sciences. Elected as AODA Country Representative. I also serve on the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Nutrition (appointed by the director-general of WHO), and as an expert consultant to FAO, WHO, and IAEA and various national governments on nutrition-related issues. I am currently working on several projects related to formulation of regional strategies for nutrition and establishing food based dietary guidelines with WHO, FAO, and the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Other publications in internationally refereed journals are on obesity, metabolic syndrome, nutritional assessment, body composition, dietary fats and plasma lipids, diet composition and appetite hormones. Association Council member.
nahla@aub.edu.lb
I was born in the rural town of Nyamandlovu in Zimbabwe, but have spent most of my life in Bulawayo. I remember vividly visiting my grandparents who lived in rural areas every other school holiday, witnessing as well as experiencing the various consequences of poverty and under-development. When I look back now, I am amazed by the coping strategies that the community employed to overcome their challenges. It is the memories of these visits that have shaped the way I view development work in general and public health nutrition specifically.
Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers, despite having no formal education, were well aware of the importance of good nutrition for children. Their concept of a balanced diet was as good as a college educated dietitian could ever prescribe from the available foods. A slice or two of bread with our tea in the morning, and a couple of cups of cow or goat milk afterwards. Mid morning, snacks of fruit from the garden or the wild, then our vegetables at lunch time, and the long-awaited pieces of meat only after finishing what was available for dinner. Washing our hands before and after meals was insisted upon, and an early afternoon as well as evening bath was a must. All this was before the era of development work and health and nutrition education.
Blessed with all these wonderful memories I sometimes wonder, what assumptions do we or should we make when seeking to address the problems of those in need? Are we really addressing the right problems? Do we professionals really know better about the solutions to these problems than ordinary people do? What should be our role? Experts, or facilitators?
Zimbabwean citizen. Currently nutrition specialist with the World Bank's South Asia health nutrition and population unit. Prior to joining the Bank, I held positions of learning and impact assessment advisor with the hunger reduction team at Save the Children UK; nutrition lecturer with the University of Zimbabwe; and nutritionist with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in Zimbabwe. I am a founding member and past coordinator of the African nutrition graduates student network. I have a PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University, an MSc in Community Nutrition from the University of Southampton, and a BSc Honours in Biochemistry from the University of Zimbabwe. Association founding member.
nkosi.mbuya@gmail.com
As a growing up child, I was passionate about recipe formulation. I have always liked to try out varieties of foods in ways that are different from the cultural or traditional use of ingredients and food items. My first attention to nutrition as a science was however in my fourth year in the university when I took an elective course in nutrition.
My experience in public health is grounded in my study for my master's degree in public health in population and reproductive health. It has been broadened by my job, which covers planning and implementation of maternal and child survival programmes. This experience has provided me with knowledge of the key role of planning, advocacy, partnership and collaboration in successful implementation of nutrition programmes. The reality of the role politics play in public health decision at various levels is quite enlightening.
My philosophy is linking nutrition research to practice by influencing policies and actions with evidences from nutrition science. Nutrition education and advocacy are key tools I value in achieving this. I am also aware of the importance of building critical mass of nutrition scientist to be committed to the cause.
Nigerian citizen. Since the beginning of 2011 I have been working as a programme and research officer (office of the executive chairman) with Food Basket Foundation International. This is a non-government organisation based in Nigeria. Before then, as from August 2008, I worked as programme and research officer II (Team leader) with the organization.
merflaky@yahoo.com
I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. Having been brought up in a multicultural environment I have developed an interest in socio-cultural anthropology, and also in the tastes of different foods from around the world. I excelled in athletics and basketball from an early age and I was taught to play classical piano. I took an interest in leaning foreign languages such as French and English and currently I am learning Portuguese. I was actively involved with scouting from the age of 5 until my late teenage years, travelling around the country and abroad to Jamborees.
After completing my secondary education at the age of 17 in Athens, I emigrated to the United Kingdom. I worked as a care assistant at an elderly people's home and at a McDonald's outlet for two years. This was a shock to me, having been raised in a family where food and cooking was very important and an everyday point of discussion. Buying food supplies was a weekly task. My siblings and I were all involved in buying weekly groceries that included fruits and vegetables from the vegetable market Laiki Agora, meat from our local butchers', fish from the central fish and meat market Varvakeios Agora, and tinned food from our local supermarket.
Hence in 2001 even though initially I was registered to study biomedical sciences at university I decided to change and complete my bachelors in nutrition at Liverpool John Moores University. I believed there was going to be lots of work to be done in the future and it involved medicine and food, my passions. After attending the 1st World Congress of Public Health Nutrition in Barcelona in 2006, I was certain I wanted to pursue a career in public health nutrition. So I got employed to work as an early years community nutritionist with the National Health Service in London. I completed my MSc in human nutrition (public health) at London Metropolitan University, and have an honorary research fellowship at King's College Medical School, at its department of general practice and primary care.
Greek citizen. I have been working as an early years community nutritionist in the inner city boroughs of London with the National Health Service (NHS) at a primary care centre since 2006. I am specialised in nutrition for infants and children between the ages of 0 to 5 years. My work is community based. I was seconded for a year at King's College, University of London, as an honorary research fellow during the 2008 academic year. I was researching the relations of alcohol consumption, low income and obesity at the school of medicine department of general practice and primary care. In my current work I deliver training to children's centre staff on nutrition under 5 years of age, organising nutrition health promotion events in the communities of the borough of Lambeth and Southwark that coincidentally also have the highest prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in England. As part of a team I am involved in promoting and training staff at Lambeth children's centres on UNICEF's Baby Friendly Initiative. I am a registered public health hutritionist with the Association for Nutrition in the United Kingdom.
sesispatroklos@gmail.com
I grew up in Bangkok, the capital city of Bangkok. I graduated with my first degree (BSc) in food technology. My first job was in the newly established nutrition research laboratory at Ramathibodi Medical School, Bangkok. Working on animal studies for my MSc was interesting, but what I also learned was how to use it for people. My first encounter with village life was my most striking new experience after my MSc. I was fortunate to have worked with leading community nutrition pioneers in the country, Professor Sakorn Dhanamitta and Professor Aree Valyasevi. While I enjoyed their simplicity, it was sad seeing so many children and women in poor nutrition and health. I was learning by doing for some time. Later, I continued and graduated with a PhD in international nutrition at Cornell University.
I have been working at the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University throughout my career. I have conducted research on micronutrient deficiency and interventions for children and women. I have also been involved with community-based national nutrition programmes. Thailand has been successful in alleviating malnutrition, because of strong participation of local communities and the hard work of the frontline personnel. The work has been very rewarding.
Thai citizen. Based in Thailand since 1976 since my MSc in nutrition, and returned after my PhD in International Nutrition at Cornell University, where I graduated in 1991. Have since conducted studies in community nutrition in two areas. One is to document community based programmes in Thailand; these have resulted in great improvements in child malnutrition since the 1980s. The other is efficacy studies of various micronutrient interventions in children, reproductive age women and pregnant women.
Deputy director of the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, 2003-2007. Have also conducted short term consultancy on community-based programmes with micronutrient intervention, as well as programme evaluations in various countries in the region. Have served as temporary advisor to WHO, FAO, UNICEF and WFP, both globally and regionally. I have also participated in a number of consultancies in the South-East Asian for various UN agencies including WHO, FAO and UNICEF as a short term consultant or advisor to expert consultative meetings on micronutrients or community-based programmes.
nupwn@mahidol.ac.th
I was born in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, but I grew up and have lived a large part of my life in Tamale, the northern capital. While growing up I remember enjoying a variety of sumptuous dishes, owing to my mother's culinary expertise. These dishes were prepared from foods abundant in the region. I grew up oblivious of hunger and malnutrition, which unfortunately, characterised most children of the indigenous population.
It was difficult for me at the time to reconcile the prevailing hunger and malnutrition especially in children with the availability of a wide variety of foods cultivated by most households. It was common for children to die from malnutrition and other closely related causes, and I counted myself fortunate. I first became aware of the importance of nutrition at secondary school. I was then a dining hall prefect, and there was famine in the region as a result of a drought the previous farming season. School meals were drastically reduced and most students had to resort to various coping mechanisms in order to survive. School was shut down for a while, and when it re-opened many students showed signs of malnutrition. It was also evident that students who had enough food to eat, mostly from affluent homes, had not changed much in terms of their nutritional status.
However, it was during field work with my students in community nutrition that my resolve to be a public health nutritionist was deepened. We visited nutrition rehabilitation centres and undertook anthropometric studies on children and women in some rural communities. I was hit by the realities of life and saw how poverty, illiteracy and many socio-cultural factors interplayed in the development and perpetuation of malnutrition. Since then, I have been involved in collaborative work with some non-government organisations and other stakeholders as well as researching and teaching and training of various categories of health staff and students in different facets of nutrition and health.
As a lecturer and researcher I am giving myself to building and strengthening nutrition capacity. I am also resolved to make a difference in my chosen career by providing exceptional leadership to unleash the potential in other,s so that together we can provide solutions to our numerous nutritional problems. I believe that public health nutrition is a unifying pathway that can lead to the realisation of good health and wellbeing of our populations.
Ghanaian citizen. PhD from the school of medicine and health sciences, University for Development Studies, Ghana. Several publications on HIV and anaemia and nutrition
paaryee@yahoo.com
Working with children with cystic fibrosis, I learned that there are big differences in people´s attitudes towards quality of life. Young children in pain and restricted in their daily life, nevertheless laugh and enjoy their days when they are supported by parents who are aware of the limited possibilities and life expectancy of their children. It became very important for me to improve the quality of life of these children. And it was a great moment when I recognised that their everyday life did indeed get better because of my intervention and support.
During my work with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups I realised that improving knowledge on healthy ways of life – including well-balanced diets and regular physical activity - does not solve problems. Most people don´t benefit from excellent research work, or personalised nutrition. They have to manage everyday life with marginal resources.
Even though, as a nutritionist, I am very interested in the results of the latest research, I learned that health depends a lot on socio-demographic factors. Molecular biology and chemistry are relevant to the exploration of nutritional issues, but laboratory work can never replace the influence of human interaction and an been and avid interest in the human condition. Human health is determined and affected by an incredibly complex and ever shifting combination of nutritional, physical, and also social and political factors.
That's why I attach special importance to the collective work of experts in the field of public health nutrition.
Austrian citizen. Currently Assistant Professor and Vice Study Dean at the Institute of Nutritional Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria. Vice President of the Austrian Nutrition Association. Co-Editor of Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, Karger. Association Treasurer.
Petra.Rust@univie.ac.at
Born just before the Second World War, I was brought up in the mountains of Wales. Age 11 I was sent away by the local authority to Ackworth, a Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire, England, because my father, headmaster of the local grammar school, had recently died. We took our food rationing books to Ackworth. There, (unknown to me until much later) we were fed under the directions of Phyllis Williams, Hugh Sinclair's nutritionist, who had helped to implement the British wartime food policy, without which Britain might well have succumbed early on.
At Ackworth we were taught to think internationally. My mother taught me this also, because she supported the education of children in what is now Zimbabwe. Then I decided to train in medicine and go to London, which was easier to reach than the medical school in South Wales. By luck I was interviewed by two Nobel prizewinners, and entered University College. After a science as well as a medical degree, I surprised everybody including myself by ending up with excellent jobs and my career was set on a rosy course!
Then I told my boss, Lord Rosenheim, that I could not stand British medicine as it was so primitive, and that I planned to emigrate. He fixed for me to go to the British Medical Research Council Tropical Metabolism Research Unit in Jamaica, to examine child malnutrition. I ended up there in clinical charge of John Waterlow's metabolic unit for babies with kwashiorkor and marasmus. So I had to learn nutrition on the job as well as doing research.
When John Waterlow transferred from Jamaica to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, I was invited to join him as senior lecturer, and to revamp the nutrition course for postgraduates. I soon found that I was at best 48 hours ahead of the students. At the School I learned about public health and discovered the brilliance of Jerry Morris, Geoffrey Rose and others who were engrossed in tropical public health, population control, development issues, and other critical topics.
Then I was asked to go to Montserrat in place of John Waterlow, to deal with a political problem. Local leaders were claiming that the poor scholastic achievement of students was because the UK government deprived children of proper nutritional support. Bike Aksu, a PhD student, and I suddenly realised that while the children were indeed malnourished by official standards, they actually were almost all stunted (small) rather than wasted (thin).This led to the new classification of malnutrition.
Back in the UK we proposed investing in epidemiological analyses of obesity. We were landed with writing the first analysis of the obesity problem and its research needs for the UK government and the Medical Research Council. Then I was asked to join Roger Whitehead at the Dunn Nutrition Institute in Cambridge and to set up the Clinical Nutrition Centre. Thus started an exciting time. John Cummings and the late Sheila Bingham joined us, to take on the very odd problem of obesity and also to deal with the mysterious new factor – dietary fibre. The missionary surgeon Denis Burkett and physician Hugh Trowell in Uganda, were claiming that dietary fibre was crucial for avoiding the bowel and metabolic disorders of the Western world.
Then Jerry Morris phoned me, and asked me to do a TV series with him and a famous entertainer, Roy Castle, setting out why good diets and plenty of exercise were important for health. I refused, because as a reputable medical research worker I could not afford to be seen to be involved in something as crude as TV! Jerry persisted, asking me if I understood anything about the social responsibilities of science. I was shamed into agreeing, and ended up making six ten minute programmes for prime-time viewing on Sunday night. We filmed in working class family kitchens, and worked out from scratch how to limit fat, sugar and salt, which at that time were not seen to be of much importance by any senior nutritionist in the UK. Our shows turned out to be the most popular and discussed programmes on diet and nutrition that the BBC had put on since the Second World War. I had completely underestimated the importance of speaking out on public health problems.
Then in 1980 Jerry Morris, who died this year at the great age of 99, asked me to chair the infamous National Advisory Committee for Nutrition Education (NACNE), This followed the same principles, but was repeatedly attacked and then its publication sabotaged by a cabal in the Department of Health involving a Health Minister, a senior Department of Health official, and the British Nutrition Foundation (which is what we would now call a BINGO, paid for by the major British food industries and involving most if not all the top nutritionists in Britain). Caroline Walker and Geoffrey Cannon tell this story in their book The Food Scandal. This taught me how readily scientists become seduced, and that public health is a dangerous occupation if we seek to contribute new approaches which threaten big industry.
Nevertheless as the then Director of the Rowett Research Institute near Aberdeen, I was dragged into the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and also into endless WHO, Scottish, British, EU and UN consultations. I came to realise that almost all the analyses, writing – and manoeuvring – had to be done personally in 'spare' time. This was true when helping Scotland's health department with then one of the world's highest cardiovascular death rates; the English government who were allergic to any initiatives in public health; and the EU trying to cope with their dawning realisation that the food chain was its biggest business. Even WHO did not know how to deal with the combination of malnutrition and the so called 'diseases of affluence'; and the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition was horrified to discover from us that the UN itself was often the biggest handicap to coherent public health developments affecting lower income countries!
For the last ten years I have been privileged to be in London running the International Obesity Task Force with a network of colleagues across the world. Now I have been 'kicked upstairs' to become president of its scientific association the International Association for the Study of Obesity.
Overall what have I learned? This, I think. If you can marshal your arguments properly, recruit allies to the cause and – crucially – immediately agree and adjust when you get something wrong, then it is indeed possible to contribute something to this enormously important field of public health.
I suppose that for me public health nutrition has been my hobby. So in my next life I will go in for public health nutrition as a career, instead of starting out as a clinical researcher fixated with understanding exactly why people succumbed to a particular disease, and imagining that measuring fluxes and biochemical pathways with new fancy techniques was the way to go!
British citizen. I qualified in physiology (1959) and medicine (1962) at University College London before postgraduate medical qualifications. Then I worked at the UK's MRC Unit in Tropical Metabolism in Jamaica for three years with a year at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, and then became a senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene.
Ran the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre 1974-1982 and was Director of the Rowett Research Institute 1982-1999. Chaired and wrote the first public health nutrition policy reports for Scotland, and several policy reports for the UK, before chairing and writing reports for WHO Europe (1986), and then the WHO 797 report on diet and public health for malnourished and chronic disease prone countries (1990). In 1996 established the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), responsible for drafting the first WHO Technical Report (2000) on the prevention and management of obesity. Persuaded Tony Blair to create the UK Food Standards Agency, and the EU a DG SANCO and then the EU Food Standards Agency. Chaired and wrote the UN Commission's report on global issues in nutrition. Was Vice President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. Is President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. Association Council member.
JeanHJames@aol.com
Growing up in an area which could best be described as an 'urban poor', I was struck by the fact that there was a mixture of undernutrition and overnutrition in the same communities. One could tell that children who were undernourished came from the most poor households. Little did I know that there was a complex interaction of both biological and social factors driving these phenomena. I wanted to be a doctor so I could help, but I ended up studying nutrition.
My first encounter with public health nutrition was as an undergraduate in a university at the north of Ghana where I was studying for a BSc in community nutrition. As part of the training I did several community attachments and placements, sometimes living and working with local people, including in areas without electricity and running water, together with other students in my year. We held focus group discussions with community elders and members. We did growth monitoring, health education, nutritional rehabilitation, immunisations and several surveys.
From these experiences, I discovered that promoting health and preventing ill-health in communities through nutrition created the conditions for economic growth and development. I was also awed as I saw a mixed of social inequalities and biological factors as paths that could only lead to children not meeting their full potential. I realised that influencing policies, programmes and decision making at the highest level of society would have a stronger impact, not only on individual communities but the nation as a whole. My desire to study public health nutrition may have been born at this point.
Now that I've obtained a PhD and am looking forward to the future, I am committed to making a difference in the lives of local communities through research meant to lead to programmes that will impact favourably on human health and well-being. I believe that nutrition leadership is important, and I look forward to making nutrition part of the national agenda in Ghana, and globally. I believe public health nutrition is one of the most cost-effective approaches to improve health in many resource-poor settings such as so many in Africa, including my own background.
Ghanaian citizen. BSc degree in community nutrition in Ghana and thereafter studied at the University of Southampton for my MSc in public health nutrition and a PhD with a focus in nutrition and HIV infection.
Currently, I work as a research fellow with the International Malnutrition Task Force of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Southampton. Previously, I worked in Ghana as district nutrition officer for the Nanumba district health management team of the Ghana health service and as a research assistant at the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. I am a member of the African Graduate Nutrition Students Network and an African Nutrition Leadership Programme graduate.
regyies@yahoo.com
My interest in public health nutrition began with commitment to address social injustices in Chile and elsewhere, and to strengthen the science base of public policy. I trained in medicine in Chile. I completed training in paediatrics and neonatology as medical specialties in Boston and New Haven 1972-75, and took a doctoral degree in nutritional biochemistry and international nutrition policy at MIT in 1975-77. These credentials and working as an assistant to Nevin Scrimshaw at that time empowered me as an agent of change.
I returned to Chile in 1977 and experienced eight years of the Pinochet dictatorship, during which time the economic and social development of the country was abruptly and forcefully changed. Health and nutrition programmes were mostly kept in place thanks to the strength of the professional and academic community. The country unified and mobilised its democratic forces reestablishing democracy in 1990. At this time I contributed to the reorientation of national food and nutrition programmes and the transformation of research and training at the Institute of Nutrition of the University of Chile (INTA) at Santiago, in order to tackle the drastic epidemiological changes the country had experienced.
I became director of INTA in 1994, serving in that post for eight years. After completing my tenure as director of INTA I became IUNS President-elect in Vienna 2001. As IUNS President with the collaboration of many we have been able to strengthen interactions with regional societies, expand nutrition capacity building efforts, increase presence of the IUNS at all levels, engage the private sector in areas of common interest placing public interest first, and advance nutrition leadership training in all regions.
Chilean citizen. Currently Professor at the Institute of Nutrition at the University of Chile, and also of Public Health Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences, 2005-2009. Work with the United Nations University on capacity strengthening of nutrition science and leadership training for young nutrition scientists. Chaired the consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (WHO technical report series 916, published 2003) that gave rise to the Global Strategy for Nutrition, Diet and Physical Activity Prevention of Chronic Diseases approved by the WHO World Health Assembly in 2004. Association founding member.
uauy@inta.cl
ricardo.uauy@lshtm.ac.uk
I grew up and have lived all my life in Australia. I initially trained and practiced as a clinical dietitian and quickly got frustrated with the downstream clinical and reactive responses to 'affluenza' (those preventable diet-related diseases of excess consumption). Much of what I have learned about the practice of public health nutrition, in areas such as breastfeeding promotion and maternal nutrition, has been by trial and error; borrowing, applying and evaluating ideas from others working in middle- and low-income countries, and learning from mistakes.
This experience has galvanised my belief that progress in public health depends on building capacity, notably by workforce development, and also by development of leadership, intelligence, organizations and respecting and empowering communities. I still train dietitians, but with a vision that they go on to practice and progress public health nutrition because they are better prepared for practice than I was, and have the passion required to make a difference.
Australian citizen. Currently Professor and Chair of Public Health Nutrition, University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Visiting Professor in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. My scholarship focuses on capacity building approaches to community-based nutrition interventions in developed countries. I have a particular interest in workforce development. Since 2004 Deputy Editor of Public Health Nutrition and currently finalising a book on public health nutrition practice with Barrie Margetts. Association Vice-President (Professional Affairs)
Rhughes1@usc.edu.au
I come from High Wycombe in the beautiful Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire in the UK. While studying for my A levels I decided I wanted to do something for the starving millions in the world. After graduating with a degree in dietetics and clinical biochemistry at Surrey University in 1973, my first job was as a VSO volunteer in Indonesia working for the East Java Provincial Health Authority based in Surabaya.
There I learned the hard way what public health nutrition was, and realised that I needed to get better qualified to do this work. So I applied for a Masters at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I got a scholarship which allowed me to go pretty much anywhere to do my thesis work, and so I went to Brazil where I met my wife and the rest is family history! I then worked eight years for the Brazilian Research Council as a researcher at their Amazonian Research Institute in Manaus, where I helped to establish the food and nutrition department and carried out research on zinc nutrition among the people of the Amazon valley. This became the subject of my PhD thesis.
In the mid 1980s I decided to move away from researching the 'what' of nutrition and start working on the 'why' and 'how', and joined UNICEF. I worked six years with UNICEF in Brazil helping to establish community based nutrition work in the North-East region especially, before transferring to Indonesia as the number two in the UNICEF office in Jakarta..
After seven years in Indonesia I was asked to become Chief of Nutrition with UNICEF in New York, which I did for two years before deciding for family reasons 'to return home' to the UK. After a brief sojourn in the UK, between 2004 and 2009 I returned to the UN as Secretary of the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition, based in Geneva. All in all some 35 years working in nutrition in development, with 30 of these spent living and working in economically developing counties. I am now living in the Algarve in Portugal.
British citizen. BSc (Hons) in Nutrition and Dietetics, 1972. MSc in Nutrition (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), 1975. PhD 1980. From 1975-1984, worked as a research associate with the Brazilian Research Council in Manaus, Brazil. During this time conducted the first rural nutrition surveys of riverside inhabitants of the rivers Negro and Solimoes. From 1984-2000, worked for UNICEF: six years in Brazil, seven years in Indonesia, two years at headquarters in New York as Chief of Nutrition.
From 1988-1989, worked with the Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy programme, with Per Pinstrup Andersen and Jean-Pierre Habicht. We developed the concepts of community based nutritional surveillance, as well as the protocol for a randomised controlled trial of vitamin A supplementation during infancy. From 2000 to date I havw been an honorary senior research fellow and then an honorary member of department at the Centre for International Health and Development, University College, London. From 2000-2004 I worked for UNICEF, the World Bank, WHO, and for Helen Keller International, as a freelance consultant. Among other things helped four countries (Angola, Pakistan, East Timor, and Mozambique) develop national nutrition strategies.
From 2004-2009 I was Secretary, UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition. Responsibilities included organising the SCN annual sessions and producing SCN publications including its reports on the world nutrition situation. Association founding member, initial Secretary-General, now Council member.
roger.shrimpton@sapo.pt
I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I graduated in nutrition at the Fluminense Federal University, Niteroi, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Since the beginning of my undergraduate studies I was concerned with the great prevalence of undernutrition among children, which was very high in Brazil at that time, and I felt that more justice was needed in health assistance and policy. This is why I became involved with the Public Health Nutrition.
After graduation, I worked for two years in Mozambique, in the Ministry of Health. In the beginning of the decade of 1980, I went to the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and taught at the Federal University of Mato Grosso for 11 years.
Brazilian citizen. I completed my Master and PhD studies in Public Health in the Brazilian National School of Public Health, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro. Since 1993, I have been teaching at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in the Department of Social Nutrition, Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro, where I have been working on nutritional epidemiology, mainly on dietary assessment, nutritional status, and the role of nutrition on the development of chronic diseases.
roapereira@gmail.com
I am from Kenya. The wounds of my country and of other African countries will heal only when the fundamental issues of inequity and social exclusion are addressed. Africans must themselves put in place mechanisms that will address problems at the core of society, of injustice and all manner of discrimination, along gender, religious, age, social class, and ethnic lines. We must serious about protecting our children and women who die needlessly from preventable conditions that arise out of neglect and misuse of resources. Children die from malnutrition related conditions and women die during child birth due to anaemia and poor care.
All my professional life has been spent working on Africa's food security issues, with a special commitment to maternal and child health. I have participated in many international conferences and other meetings as a participant, consultant and resource person and facilitator, often representing my country or Africa as a whole.
I worked in the past with the UN system including with UNICEF, FAO; with foundations and the food industry; and with the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Always I am trying to engage them to do right by nutrition. I also work with farming communities, men as well as women, trying to exchange ideas on how best good nutrition can be achieved at both family and child levels. Recently I have been very much involved with trying to see whether farmers can improve their productivity through increased use of good inputs and with biofortification, working with HarvestPlus, to enhance the nutrient content of commonly eaten foods.
I am an editor, organiser and advocate. People tell me I am good at advocacy and lobbying, and these skills were enhanced through participation in the Kenyan Parliament.
Kenyan citizen. Hold a PhD in Food Science and Nutrition. I was educated in Kenya and the USA, at the University of Nairobi, and at Washington State University, Pullman. As member of the Kenyan Parliament for five years, advocated to minimise poverty and hunger. Now an independent consultant. Founder and editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND). Serve on a number of Boards, both national and international. Leader of The Rural Outreach Programme, a non-government organisation committed to the improvements of rural livelihoods. Association founding member.
oniango@iconnect.co.ke
