Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D. is a University Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology in the Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, and Director of the Center for Population Health, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She holds an adjunct appointment at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and her undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, both in nutritional sciences. Between these degrees, she spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. Before joining UMass Lowell, she was at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Northeastern University, and McGill University. Dr. Tucker has contributed to more than 500 articles in scientific journals. Her research focuses on dietary intake and the risk of chronic disease, including osteoporosis, cognitive decline, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease, with an emphasis on health disparities. She is the PI of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, a cohort study, to examine the roles of diet, health behaviors, stress, and genetic predisposition in relation to chronic conditions, including heart disease, cognitive decline, and bone health; and is actively involved as a scientific advisor for the NHLBI Jackson Heart Study. She served two terms on the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, was the editor-in-chief of Advances in Nutrition, the international review journal of the ASN from 2013- 2023, and is the senior editor for the forthcoming 12th edition of Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. She is a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the Gerontological Society, and the American Society for Bone Mineral Research.
Education
- Ph.D., Cornell University (-)
- , University of Connecticut (-)
Research Interests
Keywords:
nutrition health disparities
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