PhD Student Profiles

Current PhD Student Profiles

haneen bou ghanemHaneen Bou Ghanem is interested in studying the effects of early life exposures on health outcomes and the biosocial and environmental factors that impact children's growth and development during sensitive developmental periods. She is also interested in exploring the unresolved molecular mechanisms in which maternal health and environmental exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding influence the offspring's health and wellbeing, increasing their risk of obesity, and metabolic syndrome. During her PhD, she will be working on the available data for three generations from the ELEMENT cohort study under the supervision of my advisor Professor Peterson.


Kate Garrity, BS, MSKate Garrity is interested in food and nutrition security, produce prescription programs, health-related social needs, and community-based participatory research.


aria grabowskiAria Grabowski is interested in understanding how maternal diet and environmental exposure to toxicants during pregnancy and lactation impacts fetal growth, breast milk composition, and subsequent offspring outcomes.


Carmen RamosCarmen Ramos is broadly interested in the association between diverse family dynamics, including coparenting and co-habitating grandparents, and the home food and weight-related environment in preschool-aged children.


Dev Sunuwar headshotDev Sunuwar My research interests revolve around three interconnected areas within the field of nutrition and public health. First, I am dedicated to improving maternal, child, and adolescent nutrition, focusing on promoting optimal dietary practices and health outcomes during these crucial developmental stages. Second, I am deeply committed to addressing issues of food and nutrition security while combating malnutrition, working to ensure that individuals and communities have access to nutritious and sufficient food resources. Finally, I am focusing on dietary interventions to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, with the ultimate goal of enhancing public health and well-being through nutrition-focused strategies.


Afnan Mohy's research interests center around investigating the bidirectional relationship between dietary intake and sleep, encompassing aspects such as sleep quality, quantity, timing, and duration. Additionally, she is interested in understanding and exploring the domains of sustainable food, sustainable food systems, and the advancements in food science and technology.


Lindsey EnglishLindsey English is interested in long-term exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals and their impact on cardiometabolic and hormonal health in global populations. She is interested in the longitudinal effects of these exposures and potential mediators of their effects like diet, particularly during critical life stages such as puberty and menopause. She is also interested in multi-omics research, especially the epigenome and metabolome.

 


Jennifer LeeJennifer Lee research interest is to investigate the relationship between dietary intake, epigenetic modification of DNA methylation, and cardiometabolic health during critical periods of growth and development.

 


Donghan SuDonghan Su has a broad research interest revolving around the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases, with a particular interest in the intricate link between diet and sleep/circadian rhythm in relation to cardiometabolic health. Additionally, I am interested in utilizing multi-omics approaches for precision medicine and addressing health disparities in diverse populations.


Esther ZhuYanxin (Esther) Zhu research interests lies broadly in using nutritional epidemiological methods to detect nutrition-related risk factors for non-communicable diseases (especially cardiometabolic diseases and obesity) from adolescents to older adults. I would like to examine the relationships between diet, lifestyle factors, food environment, and the prevalence of diseases in diverse populations domestically and globally, using both quantitative and quantitative data. 


Graduates of PhD-Nutritional Sciences

Yanelli Rodriguez CarmonaYanelli Rodríguez Carmona I am primarily interested in studying interactions between environmental and nutritional exposures, and their inflammatory potential in the development of chronic diseases.


Kelley BortonKelley Borton, MPH is focusing on nutritional epidemiology and is also currently pursuing her dietetic internship at the University of Michigan.  She is interested in nutrition advice as well as weight stigmatizing messages portrayed in reality weight loss television, as well as weight misperception in adolescents and its association to weight related health behaviors.  In addition, Kelley is interested in the relationship between social media use and body satisfaction, and the implications on the prevention of disordered eating.


James CaseyJames Casey, MS is looking at the identification of diet analysis using metabolomics.  James is also interested in identifying specific metabolomic pattern changes due to obesity, exercise, and changes in diet.


Ellen DavisEllen Davis, BS is interested in how the metabolism interacts with the immune system.  Specifically, she studies the signaling between the cytokine interleukin-6 and GLP-1, an important regulator of glucose, during sepsis.


Aarohee FulayAarohee Fulay is broadly interested in investigating how food insecurity, food access, and the food environment (nutrition policies and programs, etc.) impact dietary quality, chronic disease risk, and overall well-being in vulnerable populations. I am particularly interested in studying the association of food insecurity with dietary quality and chronic disease risk in children, adolescents, and college students.


Noura El HabbalNoura El Habbal 


Samantha Hahn, MPH, RD Samantha Hahn, MPH, RD is a PhD Candidate interested in eating disorder prevention and the unintended consequences of public health efforts to prevent and treat overweight/obesity. Her dissertation focuses on the use of weight-related self-monitoring, such as calorie counting or physical activity tracking, and how it impacts eating disorder risk among college students. Outside of her dissertation, she has focused on the health-related implications of weight misperception and weight stigma.


Jennifer LaBarreJennifer LaBarre, MPH, RD research interests includes studying how nutrition influences metabolism during sensitive periods in human growth and development leading to an increased chronic disease risk.  Jen's dissertation will test the hypothesis that nutrient exposures in utero, as reflected in the metabolome, has a direct influence on the development of the offspring and the offspring's epigenome.  Further, the metabolic pathways modified by intrauterine exposure will be reflected in the metabolome of the infant at birth and these altered metabolomic profiles will be identified in adolescents with phenotypic characteristics of excess adiposity and progression towards insulin resistance.  Upon completion of these studies, she hopes to develop the necessary information to form a model for how intrauterine exposure can lead to altered metabolism in later life.


Nathalie LambrechtNathalie Lambrecht is interested in promoting human nutrition and health within ecologically sustainable food systems. Her dissertation investigates the linkages between household livestock ownership and anemia among young Ghanaian children, assessing both the nutritional benefits of animal-source food consumption and the infectious disease risks of exposure to enteric pathogens from animal feces. Nathalie also researches sustainable diets and linkages with planetary health.


Astrid ZamoraAstrid Zamora research interests include metabolic health, enviornmental exposures, nutritional epidemiology.