Appendix V

Committee Biosketches

Kathleen M. Rasmussen, Sc.D., R.D. (Chair), is the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition, Division of Nutritional Sciences, at Cornell University. Dr. Rasmussen is internationally known for her research on maternal and child nutrition, particularly in the areas of pregnancy and lactation. She has served as program director for Cornell’s National Institutes of Health (NIH)–sponsored training grant in maternal and child nutrition since 1986 and has also directed a training grant in international maternal and child nutrition. Dr. Rasmussen has taught a nationally recognized course in maternal and child nutrition for graduate students since 1980 and has taught a unique course on public health nutrition for undergraduate students since 1998. As part of her commitment to mentoring future leaders in nutrition, Dr. Rasmussen serves as the principal faculty member at the Dannon Nutrition Leadership Institute, which she helped to develop in 1998. She has received the Excellence in Nutrition Education Award and also the Mentorship Award from the American Society for Nutrition. The American Public Health Association honored her for her research accomplishments with their Agnes Higgins Award in 2012. Dr. Rasmussen has served as president of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences and also as president of the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation. She has been associate dean and secretary of the university faculty and served a 4-year term on Cornell’s Board of Trustees as one of its faculty-elected members. Dr. Rasmussen has been a member of several expert committees at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, including the Committee on Scientific Evaluation of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program Women, Infant, and Children

Nutrition Risk Criteria. Recently, she served as the chair of the Committee on Reexamination of Institute of Medicine Pregnancy Weight Guidelines and then as chair of a committee to disseminate these new guidelines. She received her A.B. degree from Brown University in molecular biology and both her Sc.M. and Sc.D, degrees from Harvard University in nutrition.

Shannon E. Whaley, Ph.D. (Vice Chair), is the Director of Research and Evaluation for Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE) Women, Infant, and Children Program (WIC), the largest local agency WIC program in the nation. In her 16 years of experience on the front lines of WIC, Dr. Whaley has become an expert in understanding both how the program functions and how it can be maximally effective in achieving positive health outcomes for the families WIC serves. Dr. Whaley’s expertise is in the planning, development, and evaluation of programs designed to optimize the healthy development of children and families served by WIC. Her work spans a broad range of topics including childhood nutrition and obesity, prevention of prenatal alcohol use, promotion of early literacy for low-income children, and examination of the impact of the recent WIC food package change on WIC participants. Dr. Whaley’s work includes controlled research studies as well as implementation of community-based interventions using evidenced-based practices. In her role at PHFE WIC, Dr. Whaley has been successful in supporting her work with public and private grants that support research endeavors as well as enhance core WIC services. She supervises graduate students from local universities and has mentored a postdoctoral researcher who recently moved on to a full-time academic position. Dr. Whaley also serves as Chair of the Evaluation Committee of the National WIC Association and in this role works closely with other WIC programs to advance the national WIC research agenda. Dr. Whaley received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Pomona College, and her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from University of California, Los Angeles.

Susan S. Baker, M.D., Ph.D., is professor, Department of Pediatrics, professor and co-chief, Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Center, University of Buffalo School of Medicine. She also serves as the laboratory director for the Gastroenterology Laboratory at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. Dr. Baker is the program director for the Pediatric Gastrointestinal Fellowship program. Her research focus is on liver (hepatology), nutrition, pediatric gastroenterology, and pediatrics. Dr. Baker worked in Africa and established two new programs in Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina before moving to Buffalo. She has published many peer-reviewed articles, chapters, reviews, as well as having edited four medical

textbooks and one nonmedical book. Dr. Baker is recognized as a leader in the field, having served as the chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, the chairperson of the American Board of Pediatrics, subboard of Gastroenterology, and numerous other national and international advisory groups including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration representative to the CODEX expert committee on infant formula. Dr. Baker received her M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marianne P. Bitler, Ph.D., is professor of economics in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Davis, and a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, in the programs on Children and Health Economics. Dr. Bitler is also a visiting scholar at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank; and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. Previously, she was a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, a postdoctoral fellow and then an economist at the RAND Corporation, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, and an economist on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in the Division of Research and Statistics (where she worked on the Survey of Small Business Finances). Her research interests include labor economics, health economics, public economics, and applied microeconomics. Her publications include several on participation in and effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which appeared in the Journal of Human Resources, the Review of Agricultural Economics, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Dr. Bitler has a B.S. degree in mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Patsy M. Brannon, Ph.D., R.D., is professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, where she has also served as dean of the College of Human Ecology. Prior to moving to Cornell University, Dr. Brannon was chair, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland. She has also served as visiting professor, Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health. Her research focus includes nutritional and metabolic regulation of gene expression, especially as relating to human development, the placenta, and exocrine pancreas. She was a member of the Committee on Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium, and she is currently a member of the Food and Nutrition Board. Dr. Brannon is a member of a number of professional and scientific associations and has served on the Executive Board of the American Society for Nutrition.

She has received numerous awards, including the Pew Faculty Scholar in Nutrition award as well as the Centennial Laureate award from Florida State University. Dr. Brannon received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in nutritional biochemistry.

Alicia L. Carriquiry, Ph.D., M.Sc., is a distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences and professor of statistics at Iowa State University. Dr. Carriquiry research interests include Bayesian statistics and general methods. Her recent work focuses on nutrition and dietary assessment, as well as on problems in genomics, forensic sciences, and traffic safety. Dr. Carriquiry is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and a fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She has served on the executive committees of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the American Statistical Association, and of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis, and she has served on the Council of the International Statistical Institute. She has served on several committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2016. Dr. Carriquiry received an M.Sc. in animal science from the University of Illinois, and an M.Sc. in statistics and a Ph.D. in statistics and animal science from Iowa State University.

David E. Davis, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at South Dakota State University. Dr. Davis studies industrial organization, currently focusing on the effects of food assistance programs on market interactions. Dr. Davis previously held a position with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he studied food markets. He has researched the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and infant formula markets, and analyzed the effects of WIC cost-containment practices for creating interstate variation in WIC food package costs. He has expertise in empirical microeconometrics: applications of panel data methods to empirical investigations of industrial organization and market power. Dr. Davis received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in economics.

Mary Kay Fox, M.Ed., is senior fellow and area leader for nutrition policy research at Mathematica Policy Research. Ms. Fox has more than 25 years of research experience with child nutrition and food assistance programs. She has conducted research on the adequacy and quality of diets consumed by children, from birth through adolescence, and has examined the contributions of school- and child care–based meal programs to children’s dietary intakes and obesity risk. She was a co-principal investigator on the 2002 and 2008 Feeding Infants and Toddler Studies, which examined feeding

practices and food and nutrient intakes among infants, toddlers, and preschoolers from birth to 48 months of age. Ms. Fox conducted a comprehensive review of research literature on the impacts of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program on health- and nutrition-related outcomes. She is currently directing the Food and Nutrition Service WIC-Medicaid II study, which is updating the landmark WIC-Medicaid study conducted in the early 1990s. Ms. Fox served on the Institute of Medicine Committee to Review Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal Requirements, as well as the Committee on Nutrition Standards for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, and the Committee on the Consequences of Sodium Reduction in Populations. Ms. Fox has an M.Ed. in nutrition from Tufts University.

Tamera J. Hatfield, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in maternal–fetal medicine at the University of California, Irvine. She treats high-risk pregnancy patients and has a particular interest in managing maternal conditions that complicate pregnancy. Dr. Hatfield’s research interests include using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate brain injury as it relates to perinatal risk factors, weight gain during pregnancy among obese patients, and preeclampsia. She is involved with teaching residents, fellows, and medical students and previously served on the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Hatfield received her M.D. from the University of California, Irvine, where she also completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in maternal–fetal medicine. In addition, she holds a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Helen H. Jensen, Ph.D., is professor of economics and leads a research group focused on food and nutrition programs in the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development of Iowa State University, an internationally recognized research center that addresses issues of the food, agricultural, and natural resource sectors. Her research interests include the design of food and nutrition programs and policies, assessment of nutritional enhancement of foods, food demand and markets, linkages between agricultural policies and nutrition, and food-safety regulations. She has led projects that analyze food demand, and that involve dietary, nutritional, and health assessment as well as the design and implementation food consumption surveys in the United States as well as in several developing countries. Dr. Jensen was elected Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) in 2012 and completed a term on the AAEA Executive Board of Directors. She has served on several committees

of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, including the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal, and the National Research Council (NRC) and IOM Committee on Risk-Characterization for Decision-Making at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She chaired the IOM and NRC’s True Cost of Food Workshop planning committee and is a member of the Food Forum. Dr. Jensen holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin.

Rachel K. Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., is the Robert L. Bickford, Jr., Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Johnson served as Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont from 2001 to 2008 and as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs from 2009 to 2011. Dr. Johnson’s research expertise covers pediatric nutrition and obesity, dietary intake methodology, diet and cardiovascular disease, and national nutrition policy. She was appointed to the Year 2000 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. She served on the Panel on Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for the macronutrients for the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Johnson served on the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Science Board from 2011 to 2014 and was Chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee from 2012 to 2014. Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University, an M.P.H. from the University of Hawaii, and is a registered dietitian.

Angela Odoms-Young, Ph.D., is associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Applied Health Sciences and an Institute of Health Research and Policy Fellow. Dr. Odoms-Young’s research is focused on understanding social, cultural, and environmental determinants of dietary behaviors and diet-related diseases in low-income and minority populations. Her current projects include studies to evaluate the impact of the new WIC food package on dietary intake, weight status, and chronic disease risk in 2- to 3-year-old low-income children and vendor participation; identify strategies to improve program participation and retention among WIC-eligible children; evaluate the efficacy of a community-based participatory weight loss intervention in African American women; and examine community engagement approaches to promote food justice. Prior to joining UIC, Dr. Odoms-Young served on the faculty of Northern Illinois University in Public Health and Health Education. She completed a Family Research Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship examining family processes in diverse populations at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Community Health Scholars Fellowship

in community-based participatory research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She received her M.S. in human nutrition and Ph.D. in community nutrition from Cornell University.

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D., is professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, and director of the Global Health Concentration and the Office of Public Health Practice at the Yale School of Public Health. His public health nutrition and food security research has led to improvements in breastfeeding protection, promotion and support programs and prevention of iron deficiency anemia among infants, as well as improvements in household food insecurity measurement and community nutrition programs worldwide. His health disparities research focuses on the impact of community health workers on improving behavioral and metabolic outcomes among Latinos with type 2 diabetes. He is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board, and he served on the 2010 and 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees. He chaired the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Planning Workshop Committee Updating the USDA National Breastfeeding Campaign and served on the Committee to Reexamine the IOM Pregnancy Weight Guidelines. He is past chair of the American Society for Nutrition’s Global Nutrition Council and President of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML). He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Nutrition, the Journal of Human Lactation, Global Food Security, and the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and an M.S. in food science and a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of California, Davis.

A. Catharine Ross, Ph.D., is professor and occupant of the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair of Nutrition in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. As a nutritional biochemist, Dr. Ross has studied cellular factors involved in the biosynthesis and transport of vitamin A molecules. Her focus has been on the cellular basis of vitamin A homeostasis. She also investigates the role of retinoids in immune function, principally antibody production, and in neonatal lung development. She served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nutrition from 2004 to 2013. Dr. Ross has received numerous awards, including the Mead-Johnson Award and the Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Society for Nutrition. She is active within a range of professional societies, including the American Association of Immunologists, Sigma Xi, and the American Physiological Society, and has served on a number of committees for the American Society for Nutrition and the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology. Dr. Ross is a Fellow of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She chaired the Committee on Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium and is a member of the Food and Nutrition Board. Dr. Ross received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology.

Charlene Russell-Tucker, M.S.M., R.D., is the chief operating officer (COO) for the Connecticut State Department of Education. As COO, Ms. Russell-Tucker leads priority project management functions to help improve the planning, efficiency, service, and delivery effectiveness of the department’s programs and services. In addition to broad agency efforts, she also directly provides leadership and oversight to the department’s Office of Student Supports and Organizational Effectiveness. Her prior position was associate commissioner for the Connecticut State Department of Education. In this role Ms. Russell-Tucker was responsible for the administration of the Division of Family and Student Support Services which comprises three bureaus: the Bureau of Choice Programs; the Bureau of Health/Nutrition, Family Services and Adult Education; and the Bureau of Special Education. She provides leadership and support in developing and implementing effective family and student support programs and services to assist schools and other educational partners in improving student performance. Prior to her appointment as Associate Commissioner, Ms. Russell-Tucker was chief of the Bureau of Health and Nutrition Services and Child/Family/School Partnerships at the Connecticut State Department of Education. The bureau was strategically positioned within the department to support the social, emotional, physical, and mental health of students and families in order to achieve success in school and in life. Its initiatives and services include school-family-community partnerships, child nutrition programs, school health promotion/mental health services/school nurses, nutrition education, safe and drug-free schools program, 21st century community learning centers/after-school programs, family resource centers, young parents program, and education of homeless children and youth. Ms. Russell-Tucker is past president of the Connecticut Dietetic Association and the Child and Adult Care Food Program National Professional Association. She is also an adjunct faculty member at a local college where she teaches business management courses in the program for nontraditional students. She received her M.S. in management from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a registered dietitian.