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Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report (2010)

Chapter: Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
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Appendix E
Committee Member Biographical Sketches

Ellen A. Wartella, Ph.D. (Chair), is Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Communication, Professor of Psychology, and Director of the Center on Media and Human Development in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She is the former executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Riverside. Prior to that, she was dean of the College of Communication and professor in the Department of Radio-Television Film at the University of Texas in Austin. Dr. Wartella is a co-principal investigator on a 5-year, multisite research project entitled IRADS Collaborative Research: Influence of Digital Media on Very Young Children, funded by the National Science Foundation. She was a co-principal investigator on the National TV Violence Study and a co-principal investigator of the Children’s Digital Media Center project funded by the National Science Foundation. She serves on the National Educational Advisory Board of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Board of Directors for the World Summit on Media for Children Foundation, PBS KIDS Next Generation Media Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees for Sesame Workshop, and advisory boards for the Center on Media and Child Health and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. She has served on the National Research Council/Institute of Medicine Board on Children, Youth, and Families and the Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research in Child Development and is the past president of the International Communication Association. Recent honors include election as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Steven H. Chaffee Career Productivity Award from the International Communication Association. Dr. Wartella received a B.A. with honors in economics from the University of Pittsburgh, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mass communications from the University of Minnesota, and completed postdoctoral research in developmental psychology at the University of Kansas.


Alice H. Lichtenstein, D.Sc. (Vice Chair), is Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and director and senior scientist of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, both at Tufts University. She holds secondary appointments as an associated faculty member in the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center and as a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Lichtenstein’s research group focuses on assessing the interplay between diet and heart disease risk factors. Recent and current work includes addressing in postmenopausal females and older males issues related to trans fatty acids, soy protein and isoflavones, sterol/stanol esters, and novel vegetable oils differing in fatty acid profile and glycemic index. Selected issues are investigated in animal models and cell systems

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
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with the aim of determining the mechanisms by which dietary factors alter cardiovascular disease risk. Additional work is focused on population-based studies to address the relationship of cholesterol homeostasis and nutrient biomarkers on cardiovascular disease risk and on the application of systematic review methods to the field of nutrition. Dr. Lichtenstein is a member of the American Society for Nutrition; the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Council; and the Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism Council of the American Heart Association. She is a past-chair of the American Heart Association Committee on Nutrition and served on the Department of Health and Human Services/U.S. Department of Agriculture 2000 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Dietary Reference Intake macronutrient panel, and the IOM Food Forum. Dr. Lichtenstein completed her undergraduate work at Cornell University, holds a masters degree from the Pennsylvania State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. She received her postdoctoral training in the field of lipid metabolism at the Cardiovascular Institute at Boston University School of Medicine.


Lindsay H. Allen, Ph.D., is director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Western Human Nutrition Research Center located on the University of California, Davis campus. The center’s primary focus is prevention of obesity, inflammation, and related chronic diseases through nutrition interventions. She is an expert on the prevalence, causes, and consequences of micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries and has conducted numerous interventions to assess the efficacy of micronutrient supplements and food-based approaches for improving nutritional status, pregnancy outcome, and child development. Dr. Allen has served on ten committees of the Institute of Medicine, including the Food and Nutrition Board and the Standing Committee for the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes. She has been an adviser to many bilateral and international agencies, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and she was president of the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for International Nutrition Research. She is vice president of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. Dr. Allen was awarded the American Society for Nutrition’s Kellogg International Nutrition Prize in 1997 and the Conrad Elvejhem Award for Public Service in Nutrition in 2009. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Davis.


Tracy A. Fox, M.P.H., R.D., is the founder of Food, Nutrition and Policy Consultants, LLC, an organization in Washington, DC, specializing in food and nutrition policy and programs at the federal, state, and local levels. She has assisted government, schools, and nonprofit and for-profit organizations in policy and program enhancements to promote positive environmental change. Ms. Fox worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect, analyze, document and publicize success stories of school and district-based nutrition and physical activity initiatives and to evaluate promising childhood obesity prevention projects across the country in Head Start and day care programs, school districts, after-school programs, and farmers’ markets. She was a member of the IOM Committee on Nutrition Standards for Foods in School and the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council’s Committee on Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity. She is president-elect of the Society for Nutrition Education and is a member of the Action for Healthy Kids’ Strategic Advisory Committee. Prior to forming her consulting company, Ms. Fox was with the government relations office of the American Dietetic Association and at the Food and Nutrition Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ms. Fox received her M.P.H. from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and a B.S. in dietetics from Hood College.


Matthew W. Kreuter, Ph.D., M.P.H., is professor of social work and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, and founding director of the Health Communication Research Laboratory, one of five National Cancer Institute–designated Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. He is also a member of the Washington University Institute for Public Health and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Siteman Cancer Center. His research explores strategies to increase the reach and effectiveness of health information in low-income and minority populations to help eliminate health disparities. Dr. Kreuter has served as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practices. He received

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×

his Ph.D. and M.P.H. in health behavior and health education from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.


Anusree Mitra, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing at the Kogod School of Business at American University. In this role, Dr. Mitra teaches marketing management, consumer behavior, and marketing research. Her research focuses on consumer perceptions of marketing information, such as advertising, nutritional labeling, and other mandatory disclosures, and their public policy implications. She has published scholarly articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Marketing Letters, and Journal of Business Research. Two of her articles in the Journal of Consumer Research won awards from the Association of Consumer Research. Dr. Mitra has a Ph.D. in Business from the University of Florida, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, and a B.S. in economics from the University of Calcutta.


Frances H. Seligson, Ph.D., R.D., is a consultant on food and nutrition issues and also serves as an adjunct associate professor with the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. She is retired from the Hershey Company where she was associate director for nutrition. She earlier worked for the Procter and Gamble Company and was assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Seligson’s professional memberships include the American Society for Nutrition and the American Dietetic Association. She has held leadership positions on committees and activities at such associations as the American Society for Nutrition, the International Food Information Council, the International Life Sciences Institute, and the National Food Processors Association. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Food Marketing to Children and Youth and the IOM Committee on Dietary Reference Intakes in Nutrition Labeling. Dr. Seligson has published extensively in the areas of nutrition and food consumption. She is an advisor on nutrition, scientific, and regulatory issues for the Hershey Company, the Coca-Cola Company, Burger King Corporation, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.


Mary T. Story, Ph.D., R.D., is professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health and associate dean for student life in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Story received her Ph.D. in nutrition, and her interests are in the area of child and adolescent nutrition, obesity prevention, and environmental and policy approaches to improve healthful eating. Her research focuses on understanding the multiple factors related to eating behaviors of youth and on environmental, community, and school-based interventions for obesity prevention and healthful eating. She has written over 300 journal articles and publications in the area of child and adolescent nutrition and obesity. She is the director of the National Program Office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program. She is on editorial boards for the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the Journal of Adolescent Health, and Nutrition Today. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Food Marketing to Children and Youth, the IOM Committee on Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools, and the IOM/National Research Council Committee on Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity. She is a current member of the IOM Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention.


Virginia Wilkening, M.S., R.D., is a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) career nutrition scientist. She joined FDA in 1983 and retired in 2004. At retirement she was deputy director of the Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. In that position, Ms. Wilkening shared responsibility for developing policy and regulations for dietary supplements, nutrition labeling, food standards, infant formula, and medical foods as well as for compliance and enforcement actions and scientific evaluation to support such regulations and related policy development and analytical database research. Prior to holding this position, she served as team leader for a multidisciplinary group responsible for implementing that part of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 that pertained to nutrition labeling, Reference

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×

Daily Intakes (RDIs), Daily Reference Values (DRVs), serving sizes, and format for the nutrition label. She had a similar role in implementing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. In 2007 Ms. Wilkening joined the EAS Consulting Group as a senior consultant on a contract basis. She also worked for 12 years as a nutritionist with the Nutrition and Technical Services Staff in the Food and Nutrition Service at USDA. Her work included developing nutrition standards and goals and evaluating the effectiveness of such goals for the National School Lunch Program and other child nutrition programs. She was also chief dietitian at Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, New York. Ms. Wilkening earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in nutrition at the University of California, Davis.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×
Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×
Page 126
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×
Page 127
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Committee Member Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine. 2010. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase I Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12957.
×
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The federal government requires that most packaged foods carry a standardized label--the Nutrition Facts panel--that provides nutrition information intended to help consumers make healthful choices. In recent years, manufacturers have begun to include additional nutrition messages on their food packages. These messages are commonly referred to as 'front-of-package' (FOP) labeling. As FOP labeling has multiplied, it has become easy for consumers to be confused about critical nutrition information. In considering how FOP labeling should be used as a nutrition education tool in the future, Congress directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to undertake a two-phase study with the IOM on FOP nutrition rating systems and nutrition-related symbols. The Food and Drug Administration is also a sponsor.

In Phase 1 of its study, the IOM reviewed current systems and examined the strength and limitations of the nutrition criteria that underlie them. The IOM concludes that it would be useful for FOP labeling to display calorie information and serving sizes in familiar household measures. In addition, as FOP systems may have the greatest benefit if the nutrients displayed are limited to those most closely related to prominent health conditions, FOP labeling should provide information on saturated fats, trans fats, and sodium.

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