Shiriki K. Kumanyika, Ph.D., M.P.H, joined the Penn community as a Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, in the School of Medicine, in 1999. She was also appointed as the School of Medicine's Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease, a newly created position designed to foster the strategic vision of health promotion and disease prevention and facilitate its implementation within the School of Medicine and campus-wide. During her three years on the Penn Campus Dr. Kurnanyika has become an integral part of the University faculty, exercising leadership in coordinating the development of a Graduate Program in Public Health Studies as well as a major nutrition research retreat that was attended by approximately 60 individuals from throughout Penn, with some participants from local institutions and agencies. In leadership and administrative roles Dr. Kumanyika draws upon her prior experiences as an Associate Director of the Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Hershey Medical Center, Head of the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and service as chair of organizations such as the American Public Health Association Food and Nutrition Section, the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, and the Public Health working group of the International Obesity Task Force. Dr. Kumanyika also has an unusually strong track record of and affinity for participation in consensus building activities, having served on more than 20 such committee in national or international forums. These experiences provide an excellent background for her proposed role as EXPORT Center Director.

Dr. Kumanyika will participate in the proposed EXPORT Center not only as overall Center director but also as Director of Core B (Research) and Core E (Behavioral and Cultural Methods). As described in the Overview of the application and in the narratives for Cores B and E. Dr. Kumanyika has a unique interdisciplinary background with research, teaching and service experien that provides her with the breadth to act as a catalyst for initiatives that bridge disciplines. Her own work integrates epidemiology and prevention science with the content areas of nutrition, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, minority health, and women's health, with numerous contributions to the literature on the epidemiology and management of obesity among African American women and is currently involved in studies of obesity prevention or treatment in African American men, women, and pre-adolescent girls. Dr. Kumanyika's involvement in activities related to health disparities began formally in 1984 when she was asked to write 5 commissioned papers for the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health, one paper addressing ischemic heart disease risks factors in each of four minority populations (blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and American Indians), for Volume 4 of that Task Force Report and another for Volume 2, on nutrition as a cross-cutting minority health issue. She has continued to focus in these areas since that time.

Dr. Kumanyika has received recognition both as a role model and as a scientist and, in that sense, can provide a strong external representation for the proposed Center. For example, in 1997 (before she was recruited to Penn) she was recognized by the Franklin Institute Committee on Science and the Arts which awarded her the Bolton L. Corson Nutrition Research Medal for the development of effective health strategies with scientific rigor and cultural sensitivity that have changed conventional thinking about obesity, diet, and chronic disease. This honor was accompanied by a high commendation from the Council of the City of Philadelphia and a special citation from the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

(c) 2003 center for clinical epidemiology and biostatistics · export-study@cceb.med.upenn.edu