What I do:
Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika is emeritus professor of epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She has an interdisciplinary background and holds advanced degrees in social work, nutrition, and public health. During her tenure on the Penn Medicine faculty, Dr. Kumanyika also served as the Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, held a secondary appointment as Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Pediatrics (Division of Gastroenterology, Nutrition Section), and was affiliated with numerous Penn institutes and centers. She was the Founding Director of Penn's interdisciplinary, multi-school Master of Public Health program. Dr. Kumanyika's research focuses on identifying effective strategies to reduce nutrition-related chronic disease risks, with a particular focus on achieving health equity for black Americans. Dr. Kumanyika founded (in 2002) and led the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN), a national network, until 2018 when AACORN took on a broader mission and rebranded as the Council on Black Health (www.councilbh.org). She was Vice-Chair of the HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Healthy People 2020 objectives, is a past president of the American Public Health Association and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and current chair of the NAM Food and Nutrition Board. Dr. Kumanyika is also a nutrition advisor to the World Health Organization and the World Cancer Research Fund, and Chair of the Expert Group for the Access to Nutrition Initiative.