Journal of Nutrition and Health Sciences

I am a graduate of the College of Arts, Science, and Technology, Kingston, Jamaica (now the University of Technology, Kingston, Jamaica). I have 8 years’ experience teaching food and nutrition at the high school level. I trained student-teachers of food and nutrition at Mico College, Kingston, Jamaica. I was a LASPAU- Fulbright Scholar (Latin American Scholarship Program for American Universities) in 1994-96. I obtained my masters’ degree at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN and a PhD in Nutrition and Dietetics at Florida International University in Miami, FL. I received the Dissertation Fellowship Award during my final year of study. I am currently an Assistant Professor in Dietetics and Nutrition at Northern Illinois University.

During my years as a lecturer at Mico College, I supervised on an average, over 20 research projects each academic year. At the same time, I also moderated and supervised theses for the University of Technology, Kingston, Jamaica. For my dissertation, I conducted a study on 276 Jamaican adolescents, examining them for risk factors of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. I have 5 publications from my dissertation, one is currently under review, 3 published abstracts, and my masters’ thesis, co-authored and published a journal article with my major professor from UTK. I have also presented posters at FASEB.

Research interests are in adolescent obesity and related risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. New research plans include evaluating the National School Lunch Program to determine if it meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to help reduce obesity in adolescents. Examine the relationship of diet quality of school meals to risk factors of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in children and adolescents ages 12-19.