Harriet Kuhnlein
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I have always been fascinated
by the diverse food and nutrition practices of the
world's peoples, and how food becomes available in so
many different ways in different cultures. I grew up on
a small asparagus and strawberry farm in southern New
Jersey in the United States, surrounded by immigrant
Italians and Caribbean migrant farm workers. They put
new tastes on the foods familiar on our 'Pennsylvania
Dutch' table that originated with our dairy and
chicken-beef-pork-farming relatives, and their gardens
and orchards, in Pennsylvania and New York State.
My university training was at Pennsylvania State
University, Oregon State University and the University
of California at Berkeley. I was steeped in learning
about issues related to food and culture; dietetics and
health promotion; and food science and anthropology.
During doctoral studies at UC Berkeley I first engaged
with nutrition of Indigenous Peoples – looking at
strontium and lead in the food environment of the Hopi
of Arizona. Then as a professor of nutrition at the
University of British Columbia (1976-1985) and McGill
University (1985-current) I expanded this unique niche
of research and teaching with many outstanding
colleagues and collaborators engaged with the indigenous
world.
Now as Emerita Professor, still guiding students and
research activities, I realise how fortunate I have been
to experience more than 40 cultures of Indigenous
Peoples in different parts of the world, often in very
economically poor and remote settings. In places like
these one learns a great deal about how to use research
for understanding the vast knowledge Indigenous Peoples
have for their cultures and ecosystems that can be used
to benefit not only their own health, but to benefit all
of us on this planet. This necessarily requires careful
reflection and public health action on human nutrition
enmeshed in social, cultural, environmental, economic,
and human rights sciences and practice. As Founding
Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition
and Environment (CINE) at McGill I have worked with
fascinating indigenous leaders and gifted colleagues,
staff and students to contribute to the momentum for
recognising and addressing the disparities in nutrition
faced by Indigenous Peoples, particularly in their rural
homelands.
I am a 'good news' person. I prefer to engage in
research and public health work that calls attention to
the good things in food systems, traditions and health,
and to share this welcomed news in areas of food
composition, cultural food practices, and dietary
quality. Colleagues in our centre have successfully
addressed the worrisome burdens of the nutrition
transition, environmental threats, food insecurity, and
the epidemiological statistics Indigenous Peoples'
experience. But it is the balanced approach of
considering both benefits and risks in food systems that
goes the farthest to engage Indigenous Peoples in the
partnerships needed to solve their pressing nutrition
problems in today's complex world. It is also being able
to genuinely say, 'You have a lot to teach us about good
food, good health and the good life.'
Since 2001 I have worked with an astonishing set of
colleagues with CINE, supported and sponsored by a wide
variety of agencies and funders. This effort is an
activity of a Task Force of the International Union of
Nutritional Sciences. In particular, I have enjoyed
several months as visiting scientist with the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome
and in the Bangkok region, during two sabbatical leaves.
Community leader partners and academic partners in our
current 12 case studies are completing the third book in
our series that documents the vast biodiversity
Indigenous Peoples know in their food systems and how
they can devise and evaluate nutrition intervention
activities to improve health in their communities. We
have met several times in exchange and planning sessions
in Italy at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller
Foundation, and have produced several documentary
videos. Check us out!
www.indigenousnutrition.org and
www.mcgill.ca/cine. And more due credit: the picture
of me is by kpstudios in Anacortes.
Citizen of the United States of America, Canada and
Switzerland. Currently resident in Anacortes,
Washington, and Baie d'Urfe, Quebec. Wife, mother of 3
and grandmother of 4. Member of the American Society of
Nutrition, the American Dietetics Association, and the
Nutrition Society; Canadian Coalition for Global Health
Research; and Canadian Institutes of Health Research
review panels. Formerly Director of the School of
Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University
(1985-1992) and founding Director of the Centre for
Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE).
Currently Emerita Professor of Human Nutrition. Fellow
of the American Society of Nutrition, and Fellow of the
International Union of Nutritional Sciences.
Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Western
Ontario; Earl Crampton award for distinguished service
in nutrition; Jack Hildes Medal for Circumpolar Health;
recognition award from the Inuit Kanatami and the Inuit
Circumpolar Conference. Expert witness and media
consultant on nutrition of Indigenous Peoples; United
Nations expert consultant on indicators of food security
for Indigenous Peoples. Active within the United Nations
Standing Committee on Nutrition. Also work with United
Nations UNEP and WHO expert consultation on indicators
for health and well-being of communities directly
dependent on ecosystems. United Nations FAO expert
consultant on biodiversity indicators for nutrition.
Association founding member.
harriet.kuhnlein@mcgill.ca |
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Ibrahim Elmadfa
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I am a nutritionist with
special interest in the bio-functionality of food and in public
health. My career started in 1970 at the University of Giessen,
Germany, where I was appointed full professor in 1980.As the disciplines that engage me are applied
natural sciences and are also embedded in the greater scientific
area of the environment and ecosystem, my expertise is based both on
mechanistic and global research activities.
For most of my life, I have moved between two
worlds of great disparities with regards to both the health and
nutrition situation, and these are still mirrored in our current
global situation of public health and nutrition. With this
background, my interest in public health nutrition and the problems
of different regions of the world has been increasing.
Having established the study of nutritional sciences at the
University of Vienna, Austria, I have been holding the position of
director and professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences
since 1990. Since 1995, have repeatedly acted as a scientific
advisor to the European Commission (Scientific Committee on Food)
and the Austrian Ministry of Health, also in my function as member
of the Austrian Codex Alimentarius Commission on food safety, diet
quality, and consumer health protection.
I am author and co-author of several books on
human nutrition, food science. Also on health monitoring such as the
Austrian Nutrition Report that so far has been published in 1998,
2003, and 2008, and the European Nutrition and Health Report 2004
and 2009. Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism,
and the book series Forum of Nutrition. President-Elect of the
International Union of Nutritional Scuiences, as from the Bangkok
congress, and President of the Austrian Nutrition Society.
Association Vice-President.
ibrahim.elmadfa@univie.ac.at |
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Inês
Rugani
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I was born and grew up in
Petrópolis, a small city near Rio de Janeiro. My family
is deeply committed to social justice, and involved in
many community projects. This has been decisive for the
choices I've made. Very early in my life I was engaged
with a civil society organisation that worked with the
social inclusion of children and adolescents. This
experience had a profound impact in my heart. At that
moment, I was sure I would work with social issues.
After that, when choosing my professional career, I
decided to work in public health, and I chose nutrition,
because I could see how it can lead to public action.
During my undergraduate course at the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro, I learned a lot in the regular
classes, and also in the students' union, in which I was
active. Thus, I learned about the rescue of the
democratic process in my country, and about the role of
the academy in developing countries.
In 1992, I began to work in the department of health of
the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. I assessed
programmes for children, adolescents and women developed
in primary healthcare units, and projects linked to
health promotion. I then realised that my vocation is to
work in the interface between the academy and public
policies.
After my PhD and appointment as a professor at the State
University of Rio (UERJ) in 1999 I became director of
the Institute of Nutrition Annes Dias, an institution
linked to the city's health department that is
responsible for all the food and nutrition public
policies of the municipality. This covers, for instance,
the school food programme serving almost 800,000
students. Here I learned about collective processes,
conflict mediation, and democratic practices.
I created a sector in the institute that is responsible
for studies in food, nutrition and health monitoring
systems and in designing, implementing and evaluating
nutrition interventions. Nowadays, as the coordinator of
this sector, I'm responsible to identify, with many
partners, the key questions for the nutrition of Rio,
which can be addressed by academic studies, to raise
funds, and to develop such studies.
After leaving as director of the Institute, while
continuing to work there, I returned to UERJ, where I
work as an associate professor in the department of
social nutrition This involves working with
undergraduate students in a small and very poor town
near Rio de Janeiro . In their theses, all my graduate students
work with themes linked to the public health nutrition
agenda of the municipality or of the Ministry of Health.
In the last two years, my new challenge has been
creating and coordinating the food and nutrition task
force of Abrasco, the Brazilian Association of
Collective Health. Its mission is to accomplish the
mission of Abrasco in public health nutrition. The task
force includes researchers known for their academic
work, from 20 different institutions and from different
regions of Brazil.
Brazilian citizen. MSc, PhD. From 1992, worked for
the health department of the city of Rio. After my PhD,
a member of the Núcleo de Pesquisas Epidemiológicas em
Nutrição e Saúde, which assembles research from many
institutions. As from 1996, professor in the State
University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).From the beginning
of 1999 to the end of 2005, director of the Institute of
Nutrition Annes Dias, Since 2008, co-ordinator of the
food and nutrition task force of Abrasco. Co-opted as
Association Council member to develop the 3rd World
Congress in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.
inesrrc@uol.com.br |
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Josep Tur
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I have had a long journey towards public health
nutrition. Always I had been thinking 'how can the
research I do, contribute to improving my neighbours'
lives?' After fifteen years working on digestive
function in laboratory animals, finally I had an
opportunity to test the effects of diet composition on
several body systems. In turn this led me to research on
nutrition and its consequences on public health. Then I
sensed I was moving towards the place I wanted to be.
At that time I was fortunate to find colleagues who have
become good friends, like Lluis Serra-Majem and Javier
Aranceta, who introduced me to public health nutrition.
In the 1990s this in turn led me to direct a group
responsible for the first nutritional survey of the
Balearic Islands, and afterwards towards finding
nutritional solutions to oxidative stress. Then we
founded the Research Group on Community Nutrition and
Oxidative Stress in our University of the Balearic
Islands.
As another experience, several years after this I
directed the nutritional survey of Jujuy province in the
Andean area of Argentina, and so have direct experience
of social and nutritional necessities in impoverished as
well as privileged societies and communities in
different parts of the world.
I am committed to defend and to promote the
Mediterranean Diet. I was born in Mallorca and have
family ties with Ibiza, both part of the Balearic
archipelago in the Western Mediterranean area. So my
commitment has deep roots.
To work in public health nutrition is not just to work
within a biomedical science. It is to protect and
improve our neighbours' lives. So now I am where I
always wanted to be.
Spanish citizen, born in Palma de Mallorca in 1957.
Pharmacist (MSc, and also PhD). Professor of Physiology
at the University of the Balearic Islands. Director of
the Research Group in Community Nutrition and Oxidative
Stress at the University of the Balearic Islands. Have
authored more than 180 publications and around 100
indexed scientific papers. A total of 10 books written
and edited, and around 50 chapters and editorials,
prologues and presentations.
Visiting professor at several universities in Europe and
South America. Associate Editor of the Spanish Journal
of Community Nutrition. Founding member of the Spanish
Academy of Nutrition and Food Science, the Spanish
Society of Community Nutrition, and the Spanish Society
of Laboratory Animal Sciences. Member, the Royal Academy
of Pharmacy of Catalonia, the board of the Spanish
Society of Community Nutrition, and the board of the NGO
Nutrition without Borders. President, the sixth congress
of the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition and fourth
Iberoamerican meeting of public health nutrition, held
in Ibiza in 2004. Association founding member.
pep.tur@uib.es
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Joyce Kikafunda
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I was born in the early fifties to a peasant
family in the western part of Uganda. In those days, educating girls
was not popular in Uganda, and indeed in most of Africa, but my
father was visionary and put me to school. Throughout my secondary
education, my dream was to become a medical doctor. However, I
realised I was not comfortable handling biological fluids, and I
applied for agriculture instead. I graduated with a first class
honours degree in agriculture at Makerere University, the first
woman to do so in Uganda. As a result, I got a scholarship for
postgraduate studies in Canada and obtained an MSc in food science
and nutrition. I also got married while in Canada.
We lived in Cameroon in the 1980s, and while there I realised that
in Cameroon levels of childhood malnutrition were low compared with
Uganda. As the West African diet is quite different from that of
East Africa, I wondered whether this was the cause of the health
differences. On return home, I participated in the establishment of
the department of food science and technology at Makerere
University, the first such unit in the country. Soon after, I went
to the UK and did a PhD in human nutrition, focusing on childhood
malnutrition and its causes, particularly diet. Being a sandwich
programme, I was able to do the research in Uganda. I found that
indeed inappropriate diet was a significant culprit, plus poor
hygiene, and infections, particularly malaria. Recently, I have
extended my research to school age, a period that is largely
neglected world-wide.
After realising that mothers in rural areas lack the knowledge and
skills for optimum child feeding and care, I have devoted a big
section of my time educating them on best practices. In the early
2000s, I spearheaded the development of an MSc in applied human
nutrition in our department. and this programme is producing the
much needed human resource in nutrition for Uganda and the region. I
get a lot of satisfaction seeing the general public and policy
makers gradually appreciating the importance of nutrition to
national health and development.
I am a Ugandan lady working at Makerere University, Kampala, as
an associate professor of food science and nutrition. I have worked
at this university for the last 20 years, half of which as head of
the department. I am also the current chairperson of Uganda Action
for Nutrition (UGAN) which recently hosted the first ever nutrition
congress in Uganda. I am a peer reviewer for the African Journal of
Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development and an external
examiner for Kenyatta University, Kenya. I am the author of Uganda
Nutrition Profiles, a book currently being published by FAO.
Recently, I was selected as a member of the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) Board of Trustees. Association founding
member.joycek@agric.mak.ac.ug |
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Lluis Serra-Majem
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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.
lserra@dcc.ulpgc.es
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Lois Englberger
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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
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Marion Nestle
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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.
www.foodpolitics.com |
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Michael Krawinkel
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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 |
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Michael Latham |
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 |
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Nahla Hwalla
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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 |
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Nkosi Mbuya
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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 |
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Petra Rust
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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 |
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Philip James
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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 |
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Reggie Annan
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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 |
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Ruth Oniang'o
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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 |
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Sabrina Ionata de Oliveira
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I was born in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. My family comes from a small town in the state of Minas Gerais. As so many Brazilians of their time, in the 1970s my parents left their rural life and moved to Brasília, the recently built new capital, in search of better conditions of life. My parents were very hard working and have always motivated me to study and to invest in education, something that they never had the chance to do and that they were rightly convinced would make a difference in my life.
At the age of 17, I had to choose a career when applying for university, and for some reason I ended up in nutrition. During most of my bachelor's degree I enjoyed the science of nutrition, but felt there was something missing. I started to find my feet while studying nutrition education, engaging in volunteering and trainee positions in this area, which brought me closer to public health nutrition. In my final year of graduation, I finally found the light in the amazing lectures of Professor Bethsáida Schmitz, who brilliantly made the link between nutrition and the social reality in Brazil. Nutrition finally made sense to me.
I worked for the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) programme in Brazil, coordinated by the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, for almost five years. The focus of my work was on food insecurity, hunger, and nutrition education. I also participated in the National Food and Nutrition Security Council, and the discussions towards a food and nutrition security system in Brazil.
In 2008, I decided it was the appropriate moment to go back to full time study, and moved to the United Kingdom for my MSc. My current research interests involve nutrition policy analysis, climate change, and the United Nations.
Brazilian citizen, based in Oppland, Norway. Currently an MSc student in social policy & social research at the University of Southampton, UK. Postgraduate diploma in food and nutrition consultancy from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, in which I studied the use of Paulo Freire's philosophy as a methodological approach for nutrition education activities. Recently completed a 6 months internship in the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), related to nutrition and climate change: the resulting policy brief is now published on-line at www.unscn.org
Sabrina.Ionata@gmail.com |
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Shiriki
Kumanyika
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I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, at a time when black
Americans in southern states like Maryland went to racially
segregated schools. Segregation was surely the most dominant social
factor shaping my early childhood, having affected the life choices
and chances of my parents, my family, and our entire networks. The
fortunate aspects for me were that in my segregated public school I
had top notch black educators who really cared about us and
instilled a sense that we could be high achievers, and had an
obligation to be exemplars – to show that we could compete and excel
in the larger society. Food and nutrition were not yet in the
picture – not, that is, academically.
Moving to integrated schools and into the big wide world took me to
Syracuse University in upstate New York for college, with a major in
psychology and minor in sociology, but really a major in the civil
rights movement, because the time was 1961 to 1965. It was a bit
hard to focus on things inside the classroom, but I made it through,
went to New York City and took a job as a social caseworker in order
to try to help people, which morphed to jobs in various health areas
such as family planning and addiction treatment. A Masters in social
work did not decrease my then high level of frustration at how
little I could really help.
When by chance I found myself in Ithaca, also in upstate New York, I
discovered that studying and working in nutrition was perhaps a more
concrete and certain way to help people. Daphne Roe, who became my
advocate (I needed one considering that my background was social
work rather than biochemistry or anything with any nutrient density
to it) and dissertation advisor in the nutrition programme at
Cornell was a great model, with her UK-framed perspective on public
health nutrition.
I pursued studies on salt and hypertension, which plunged me
immediately into public health policy issues because we knew even
then (in the mid 1970s) that dietary salt reduction was warranted. I
figured out that there was such a thing as epidemiology, and then
met Jean-Pierre Habicht who began to talk to me about two-by-two
tables. I stayed on the Cornell faculty to teach community
nutrition, but my appetite for public health ultimately led me to
leave idyllic Ithaca for Baltimore to study public health at Johns
Hopkins (choosing that location was not entirely a coincidence given
family there).
The circle began to take me back to wanting to help people, now by
directly studying things of a social, cultural, and political
nature. I stayed on the Hopkins faculty in epidemiology, was pulled
into the (re) discovery of health disparities, and drew on my
personal experiences of how injustice could lead to poor health.
Discovered that obesity was a particular issue for black women and
became a so-called expert on that topic – this was before the
general obesity epidemic. Mostly I was considered a cardiovascular
epidemiologist or nutritional epidemiologist.
My current work is completely dominated by the obesity epidemic,
although that is a good thing if the focus and energy associated
with my efforts actually lead to positive change. My two main
platforms have been the International Obesity Task Force, courtesy
of Association Council member Philip James, and an organisation that
I founded in 2002 – the African American Collaborative Obesity
Research Network (www.aacorn.org).
The reason for starting the network will be obvious. In 2010 obesity
is more common in black women (compared with US white women and also
with black men even given the high rates of obesity in US people
overall), as it was in 1984 when I discovered this. But it is now
also more common in black than white girls, which is a recent
phenomenon. So I formed the network because I thought that a little
help from and for my friends could accelerate progress, and my
friends could become each others' friends, and so forth. At this
writing, given what we now know about the political, social and
cultural aspects of food, and the need for a major focus on public
health and policy to reverse the epidemic, I am completely at home
in this world of endeavour, and like to think that this is also a
network to which I belong.US citizen. Professor of
epidemiology in the department of biostatistics and epidemiology and
the department of pediatrics (gastroenterology, nutrition section)
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in
Philaldelphia; Also at Penn: Associate Dean for health promotion and
disease prevention in the School of Medicine; senior scholar in the
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics; senior Fellow in
the Center for Public Health Initiatives, the Leonard Davis
Institute for Health Economics, and the Institute on Aging; and
faculty fellow in the Penn Institute for Urban Research. Degrees
include MSc in social work from Columbia University, PhD in human
nutrition from Cornell, and MPH from Johns Hopkins. Have held
faculty positions at Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Penn State University,
the University of Illinois at Chicago (where I was head of the
nutrition department for three years), and Penn, where I have been
since 1999.
Author of numerous research articles, reviews, and book chapters
related to the themes in my work. Member of the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) and service on several IOM committees related to
obesity or women's health. Member of the World Cancer Research
Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research panels responsible for
the 2007 and 2009 cancer prevention reports. Lead editor, with Ross
Brownson, of the Handbook of Obesity Prevention (2007), a primarily
US focused text on understanding the landscape for obesity
prevention and considering interventions across life stages and in
various settings. Lead editor of a 2010 IOM report, Bridging the
Evidence Gap in Obesity Prevention: A Framework to Inform Decision
Making. This urges policy makers and researchers to consider obesity
from a systems perspective and take a broad and transdisciplinary
view of what constitutes evidence and how to generate it. Extensive
service on expert panels in the US and global nutrition spheres.
These have included being vice-chair of the WHO/FAO panel
responsible for the 2003 '916' report on Diet, Nutrition and the
Prevention of Chronic Diseases.
s.kumanyi@mail.med.upenn.edu |
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Sidiga Washi
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I grew up for the first 17 wonderful years of my life in Port Sudan
City, the third largest city in Sudan. One thing about living in a
port city is that you see what is coming and going. When we were
little we saw many United Nation agencies come into the port
bringing goods, and we saw the World Food Programme import canned
food that was later distributed to us in primary school. In the
early 1980s I saw hungry people coming from the famine areas in
western Sudan and that took my complete attention, to do something
about this. After finishing my first degree, I decided to pursue my
graduate studies in the field of community nutrition to help such
communities overcome their nutrition problems.
Visiting and working outside my country has
given me an opportunity to understand the various causes of dietary
behaviour that lead to nutrition related problems. These need to be
addressed at various levels. Also as a woman and an activist, I
realise that women are most susceptible to lower status in nutrition
despite the fact that they are the ones that deal with household
aspects of feeding. This has led me to look into the gender
disparities in nutrition in my country.
Sudanese citizen. Work in United Arab
Emirates since 2008. Currently professor of community nutrition,
United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain. Former Dean of the School
of Health Sciences at Ahfad University for women in Sudan. Recently
I was awarded a grant from the Emirates foundation to lead a team on
a research focuses on interventions aimed at preventing obesity
among school children in UAE. I was a trained leader in nutrition
and was a former president of the Sudanese Nutrition and Environment
Society. I was also a member of the executive committee of the
Middle East and North Africa Nutrition Association (MENANA). I am a
very active community nutrition advocate via media and I present at
many professional nutrition meetings. Am currently teaching a course
in public health nutrition.
Association founding member.
sidigaw@uaeu.ac.ae |
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Ted Greiner
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When in 1975-1976 I took Michael Latham's introductory
and advanced courses in international nutrition at
Cornell University, New York, I decided on this as my
career direction. It appeared to be a way to make a
difference for millions of disadvantaged people in the
low-income countries. Because I doubted (and continue to
do so) that professionals from rich countries can or
should play very active technical roles (other than
capacity building), I chose for my master's research an
issue where rich countries certainly were the problem:
the impact of commercial baby food advertising on infant
feeding patterns, conducted in St. Vincent, West Indies.
During the spring of 1977 I lived for a few months in
Ghana and my former wife lived in Cote d'Ivoire, as we
did a study for FAO on the economic value of
breastfeeding in west Africa. It was the most detailed
of such studies at the time. Published in 1979 by FAO in
English and French, they told me a few years later that
it was their 'best seller'. (It was of course sent for
free to anyone who requested it).
In 1978-81,with a Rockefeller Foundation grant, I
planned, managed and organised a three-part evaluation
of a 3-year breastfeeding promotion project in Yemen.
This was the topic of my PhD dissertation. In the
following decades, the average duration of breastfeeding
there doubled in both rural and urban areas. From 1983
to 1985, I returned to Yemen, employed by the ministry
of health to help set up its first nutrition unit.
Since then I have worked as a consultant for UN
agencies, the World Bank, and others, dealing with a
large number of governments and their agencies and with
civil society organisations. Much of my work has been
concerned with capacity building on policy, programme
and research approaches in low-income countries, mostly
dealing with maternal and child nutrition, and often
specifically with breastfeeding.
From 1985-1994, I was a dedicated full-time consultant
to the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (Sida) based at Uppsala University's
International Maternal and Child Health unit (IMCH). I
assisted in planning, follow up and evaluation of their
large nutrition portfolio in Asia and Africa, and their
support to international breastfeeding non-governmental
organisations. Then until 2004 I remained at IMCH as
associate professor of International Child Health,
running multi-year Sida-funded capacity building
programmes for Tanzania and Zimbabwe that strengthened
everything from technical nutrition capacity, to
accounting, to libraries. Experts from Sweden, the US or
the UK provided specific defined services to meet their
identified needs and requirements. Sida really does most
of its development assistance this way – the budgets are
negotiated at a higher level, but ministry departmental
officials made most of the decisions on how the money
allocated to them would be used.
During this period I continued to do consultancy work,
largely with the World Bank and the World Alliance for
Breastfeeding Action (WABA). At Uppsala my students'
research work focused on public health nutrition issues
related to infant feeding, micronutrient malnutrition,
and obesity. Most of them came from economically
developing countries and did their research in their
countries.
During my 19 years at Uppsala University, I made duty
travel visits of an average duration of two weeks
perhaps 25 times to Tanzania, 20 to Zimbabwe, 15 to
Bangladesh (mainly to northern rural areas), 10 to
Zambia, 7 to South Africa, 3 to Sri Lanka, 2 to China,
and 2 to Yemen. I lived in India most of the time during
1997-1998 working on ICDS projects in three states and
travelled there perhaps a dozen other times. Perhaps
half of this time in the field was used for planning,
follow up, or evaluation of projects and the other half
was for capacity building.
During 2001-2002 I spent about 6 months living in Penang,
Malaysia helping WABA, mainly in planning the technical
components of their forum in Arusha, Tanzania, and the
preceding WABA-UNICEF Colloquium on HIV and Infant
Feeding, as well as editing the published proceedings
from the latter.
From 2004-2008 I worked with the Program for Appropriate
Technologies in Health (PATH), largely as director of
the Ultra Rice Project (focusing on fortifying rice in
China, India, Brazil and Colombia) and in research and
advocacy efforts on HIV and infant feeding, largely in
Rwanda, Cote d'Ivoire, and Kenya. In 2008 I became
professor of nutrition at Hanyang University in Seoul
Korea where I teach a wide range of nutrition courses
and assist with a number of public health nutrition
research studies.
In an unjust world, most of the resources available for
combating poverty and malnutrition reside among the poor
themselves. However, expecting impoverished populations
and communities to pull themselves up by their
bootstraps, while they are being held down by health and
nutritional problems that sap their energy and inhibit
their children from learning, just adds insult to
injury.
Dual citizen of USA and Sweden. MAEd, MSc, PhD.
Studied at Cornell University. From 1978-1985 based half
the time in Yemen. From 1985-2004 worked in Sweden, with
the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
(Sida) based at the University of Uppsala. Throughout
this time and afterwards have been involved with the UN
System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN). As far as
I know, I am the only person who has attended all (but
one) of the 24 full SCN meetings that have taken place
since 1987. I was chair of the bilateral constituency
from 1990-1995, and have been chair of the civil society
organization constituency since 2008.
From 2004-2008 worked with PATH in Washington DC. From
2008, professor of nutrition at Hanyang University in
Seoul, Korea. Author or coauthor of 67 peer reviewed
journal articles, 33 letters to journal editors, ten
books or published monographs, 43 book chapters or
articles in published meetings proceedings or
newsletters, 23 published abstracts, 76 presentations at
scientific meetings, and 24 major consultant reports.
tedgreiner@yahoo.com
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Tina Karapetyan
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I was born in Armenia in 1980. During the past decades my country
has endured great environmental, political and economic turmoil. The
earthquake of 1988 in Leninakan, Armenia's second largest city, took
50,000 lives and completely destroyed three cities and many
villages. As a former Soviet republic, Armenia faced socio-economic
chaos following the 1991 collapse of the USSR. These resulted in
immeasurable psychological devastation, and economic and other
deprivation beyond the capacity of Armenia to address. I know
first-hand about the difficulties people face due to malnutrition
and other socio-economic problems. After I graduated from medical
school, I became very interested in public health. I worked in
different programmes within Armenia, advocating healthy ways of life
and healthy diets.
My career as a healthcare professional started from my work at
Yerevan State Medical University's department of epidemiology. After
having worked there for two years, I was granted an award for
completion of my master's degree in the USA. During my US studies I
was involved in different projects, including the New York State
Department of Health WIC (women, infants, and children) nutritional
programme.
Working on the evaluation of that project made me think about the
differences in public nutrition problems in countries like the USA,
in contrast with much less resourced countries like Armenia. Ever
since I have been very interested in public health nutrition, which
is why I was more than happy for the opportunity to work at the
Hellenic Health Foundation, where we have many public health
nutrition-related programmes running.
My job requires daily communication with people of different
nationalities from all over the world. Based on what I've learned
from all of them, public health nutrition is an essential aspect
everywhere. The world needs to deal with these issues, and the world
needs truly dedicated people for that purpose.
I am a citizen of Armenia. Currently resident in Greece. Medical
doctor, MSc in epidemiology. Researcher at the Hellenic Health
Foundation, Athens, Greece. Currently involved in projects on health
and ageing (CHANCES- Consortium on Health and Ageing Network of
Cohorts in Europe and the United States) Formerly an assistant
professor at the department of epidemiology of Yerevan State Medical
University in Armenia. Active member of the Association of Armenian
microbiologists, parasitologists and epidemiologists.
tina.karapetyan@hhf-greece.gr |
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Tom Baranowski
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Serendipity got me interested in children's diets and physical
activity. (Long story; ask me about it when we meet!) While
initially focused on chronic disease prevention among children
through healthier diets and physical activity, especially involving
families, the emerging pediatric obesity epidemic focused my work on
obesity prevention, which is another path to adult chronic disease
prevention.
In my belief we have not been sufficiently self critical of our
conceptual frameworks, measurement or intervention methods. We seem
to be repeating our mistakes. Accordingly I have advocated for
substantial incremental innovation in all aspects of intervention
design, delivery, measurement and evaluation. Colleagues outside the
USA have conducted important work in many of these areas. There
needs to be more sharing and collaboration across national borders.
The final chapters in this book haven't been conceived, no less
written. Lots of opportunities for high quality research.
US citizen. Currently professor of pediatrics and leader of the
behavioral nutrition group in the USDA supported children's
nutrition research centre in the Department of Pediatrics in the
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Principal investigator
on seven externally funded research grants; collaborator on six
other grants; and mentor to seven junior scientists. Am particularly
interested in designing video games to promote dietary and physical
activity behaviour change; and to incorporate biological variables
into models predicting children's and adolescent diet and physical
activity. Association founding member.tbaranow@bcm.tmc.edu |
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Urban
Jonsson
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I was born and grew up in a very poor village in the
mining and forest area of northern Sweden. Poverty never
threatened our dignity, because all in the area were
equally poor. The new Swedish social democratic
government elected in the early 1950s enabled me to
continue my studies past the secondary level. At the
Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg I
studied food science and technology up to my PhD. During
the same time I also studied economics, mathematics and
philosophy.
My interest of nutrition came from one of my mentors,
Olof Melander, a guru in the area of applied nutrition.
He was one of the founders of the Swedish-supported
Ethiopian Nutrition Institute in the 1960s. His course
on 'nutrition in developing countries' for PhD students
inspired many of us to work in that area. The Swedish
government's International Development Co-operation
Agency (Sida) invited me for a study tour to Tanzania in
1973, and so I left my promising research career for a
two year Sida job at the Tanzania Food and Nutrition
Centre. I worked there for five years and really never
left Tanzania after that. Tanzania has become my second,
or maybe my first, home country.
After then I worked for two years at the UN University
world hunger programme in Tokyo. My supervisor Nevin
Scrimshaw taught me nutrition and also how to work
non-stop at a 200 per cent level. During this period I
developed a conceptual framework on the causes of
malnutrition, which identifies immediate, underlying and
basic causes of nutritional status, and also identifies
'food', health' and 'care' as the key underlying
conditions for good child nutrition. Later on this was
adopted by UNICEF and is now used by most organisations
and agencies in the field. This work opened the door for
me to join UNICEF, first as country representative in
Tanzania for eight years, then chief of nutrition in
UNICEF headquarters in New York for five years, then
regional director for South Asia for five years, and
then for East and Southern Africa for five years.
During my time as country representative in Tanzania I
led the work of the WHO/UNICEF joint nutrition support
programme in the Iringa region. This was one of the
great successes in community-based nutrition in the
1980s. As UNICEF chief of nutrition later, I developed
the nutrition strategy that was applied in all country
programmes in the 1990s. When appointed by James Grant,
then Executive Director of UNICEF, as regional director
for South Asia, I was asked to spend most of my time on
the serious problem of malnutrition. The consequent
nutrition initiative for South Asia served for many
years as the 'think tank' for nutrition in the region.
From all this experience, I am convinced that people who
are poor should be recognised as the key actors in their
own development, and not as passive beneficiaries or
targets of transfers of commodities and services. I
genuinely hate the notion of 'packages' which for me
represent the antithesis of development. I also firmly
believe in the constructivist approach, that we all
construct and re-construct what we see as 'reality'.
The 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
started UNICEF's work with human rights. A new
explicitly human rights-based mission statement was
adopted in 1996, and then the UN Secretary-General asked
for all relevant UN agencies to apply a human
rights-based approach to development. UNICEF moved
fastest, largely as a result of the work we had done in
East and Southern Africa.
I was appointed senior advisor on human rights to the
Executive Director during my last year at UNICEF. This
enabled me to link with many other organisations
involved in the struggle for the realisation of human
rights. Currently my own priority research interest is
about the complex relationships among development,
democracy, justice and human rights, which I do in
cooperation with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the
University of Lund, Sweden.
I am a Swedish citizen. Having working outside that
country for the last 35 years. I regard myself as a
member of Tanzanian society. PhD in food science and
technology, University of Gothenberg. From 1976-1980
worked at the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, as
chief of planning and then from 1980-1981 at the United
Nations University in Tokyo, working for its world
hunger programme. Then worked for UNICEF for 24 years,
first as representative in Tanzania 1981-1990, then
Chief of Nutrition in New York between 1990 and 1994,
then regional director for South Asia 1994-1999, then
regional director for East and Southern Africa
1999-2003, then finally in my last year with UNICEF as
senior advisor to the Executive Director.
I have been an active member of the UN Standing
Committee on Nutrition for many years, initiated the SCN
working group on nutrition as a human right, and am an
alternate chair of the SCN civil society group.
Currently am executive director of The Owls, an
international consultancy company in the area of human
rights, democracy and development. During the last few
years I have provided support to a number of
organizations, including the United Nations Development
Programme, the United Nations High Commission for Human
Rights, UNAIDS, Sida, and the African Child Policy
Forum.urban@urbanjonsson.com
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