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Shiriki Kumanyika

Shiriki Kumanyika

Professor of Epidemiology,Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology,University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,USA.

 

 

 
Biography

PhD, MPH, is emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. During her 15-year tenure on the Penn Medicine faculty, Dr. Kumanyika also served as the associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, was the founding director of Penn’s multi-school MPH program, and held a secondary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics, Nutrition Section. She has a unique interdisciplinary background that integrates her training and experience in social work, nutrition, epidemiology and public health to address prevention of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases and health disparities. Dr. Kumanyika founded and chairs the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network, or AACORN, a national network that seeks to improve the quantity, quality, and effective translation of research on weight issues in African American communities. She has authored or co-authored more than 300 scientific and professional publications and lectured widely in the United States and abroad.

 

Dr. Kumanyika has been active in APHA since 1976. She has chaired the Food & Nutrition Section, been a member of the Equal Health Opportunity Committee, Action Board, Joint Policy Committee, Publications Board and Science Board, and, during 2004-2008, was an elected member, vice-chair, and chair of the Executive Board. Among her activities in the broader public health community, Dr. Kumanyika was the vice-chair of the Department of Health & Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. Her achievements and service in public health have been recognized with several honors and awards, including the Excellence in Dietary Guidance Award from the APHA Food & Nutrition Section (1998), election to the Institute of Medicine (2003) and the Wade Hampton Frost Award Lectureship from the APHA Epidemiology Section (2011).

Dr. Kumanyika has extensive experience in advisory roles related to public health and nutrition policy in the U.S. and abroad. She is currently a nutrition epidemiology adviser to the World Health Organization and the World Cancer Research Fund and co-chair of the Policy & Prevention Group of the World Obesity Federation.

 

 

 
Research Interest

diversity, education, public health,schools of public health, students.