Gillings School Directory
Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD
Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD
Associate Dean for Research
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition
Department of Nutrition
Penny Gordon-Larsen became the Gilling School's Associate Dean for Research in September 2018. In this role, she leads a schoolwide research program of approximately $200 million in research funding each year. She provides intellectual and strategic leadership and vision for research programs and for supporting and enhancing the School’s research enterprise.
Dr. Gordon-Larsen’s research program is supported by the NIH. Much of her research focuses on issues related to ethnicity, disparities and development of obesity over the lifecycle, with attention to pathways linking environment and behavior to cardiometabolic risk. Her portfolio ranges from molecular and genetic to environmental and societal-level factors that influence health. She served as President of The Obesity Society in 2015 and received the Eli Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from The Obesity Society in 2010. She served on the NIH Nutrition Research Thought Leaders Panel and as Chair for the NIH Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes Study Section. She currently serves on the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases advisory council and co-chairs the NIDDK's Strategic Plan Dissemination and Implementation Research Subgroup.
She is instrumental in the leadership of COVID-19 research response at the Gillings School. Also, she leads the "Heterogeneity in Obesity Creativity Hub: Transdisciplinary Approaches for Precision Research and Treatment," a large, collaborative project with 27 faculty from 16 departments, six schools and five centers and institutes. The project focuses on understanding why two people who consume the same diets and exercise equally can have very different susceptibility to weight gain, with the aim of developing treatment approaches that go far beyond the “one-size-fits-all” approach that is so common. Read about the Obesity Hub at the UNC Research website.
Dr. Gordon-Larsen’s research program is supported by the NIH. Much of her research focuses on issues related to ethnicity, disparities and development of obesity over the lifecycle, with attention to pathways linking environment and behavior to cardiometabolic risk. Her portfolio ranges from molecular and genetic to environmental and societal-level factors that influence health. She served as President of The Obesity Society in 2015 and received the Eli Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from The Obesity Society in 2010. She served on the NIH Nutrition Research Thought Leaders Panel and as Chair for the NIH Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes Study Section. She currently serves on the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases advisory council and co-chairs the NIDDK's Strategic Plan Dissemination and Implementation Research Subgroup.
She is instrumental in the leadership of COVID-19 research response at the Gillings School. Also, she leads the "Heterogeneity in Obesity Creativity Hub: Transdisciplinary Approaches for Precision Research and Treatment," a large, collaborative project with 27 faculty from 16 departments, six schools and five centers and institutes. The project focuses on understanding why two people who consume the same diets and exercise equally can have very different susceptibility to weight gain, with the aim of developing treatment approaches that go far beyond the “one-size-fits-all” approach that is so common. Read about the Obesity Hub at the UNC Research website.
Penny Gordon-Larsen in the Gillings news
- At inaugural symposium, UNC experts seek to improve research on causes of obesity
- Regional variations in gut microbiota could contribute to varying health effects in China
- Gordon-Larsen named Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor
- The latest COVID-19 science — easily understood through a new dashboard
- Groundbreaking study reveals genetic markers for Type 2 diabetes in East Asians
Honors and Awards
NIDDK Advisory Council2019-2022, NIH, National institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Chair, Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes Study Section2016-2019, NIH, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
President2015, The Obesity Society
Editor's Choice Reviewer Award2010, 2005, Obesity
Eli Lilly Scientific Achievement Award2010, The Obesity Society
Delta Omega Society2005, UNC-Chapel Hill
Key Publications
Obesity as a Disease, Not a Behavior. Gordon-Larsen P, Heymsfield SB. (2018). Circulation, 137(15), 1543-1545.
Food availability/convenience and obesity. Penny Gordon-Larsen (2014). Advances in Nutrition, 5(6), 809-817.
Eighteen year weight trajectories and metabolic markers of diabetes in modernising China. Linda Adair, Penny Gordon-Larsen, Amy Herring, Annie Howard, Elizabeth Koehler, Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, Lauren Paynter, Barry Popkin, Amanda Thompson, Bing Zhang (2014). Diabetologia.
Accounting for Selectivity Bias and Correlation Across the Sequence From Elevated Blood Pressure to Hypertension Diagnosis and Treatment. P. Gordon-Larsen, S. M. Attard, A. G. Howard, B. M. Popkin, B. Zhang, S. Du, D. K. Guilkey Am J Hypertens, 31(1), 63-71.
Recent urbanization in China is correlated with a Westernized microbiome encoding increased virulence and antibiotic resistance genes. K. Winglee, A. G. Howard, W. Sha, R. Z. Gharaibeh, J. Liu, D. Jin, A. A. Fodor, P. Gordon-Larsen Microbiome, 5(1), 121.
BMI loci and longitudinal BMI from adolescence to young adulthood in an ethnically diverse cohort. M Graff, K North, A Richardson, K Young, A Mazul, H Highland, K Mohlke, L Lange, E Lange, K Mullan Harris, P Gordon-Larsen (2017). International journal of obesity (2005).
Education
Post-Doc, Nutritional Epidemiology, UNC-CH, 2000
PhD, Human Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 1997
BA, Anthropology & Psychology, Tulane University, 1989
