Message from Dr. Raz Shaikh,
Chair of the Department of Nutrition

Dr. Raz Shaikh

Nutrition has a critical role in the maintenance of human health including preventing various diseases and thereby ensuring well-being across the lifespan. The wide-ranging field of nutritional sciences is at the forefront of global and local public health. Health inequities, food insecurity, global malnutrition, and poor dietary habits in addition to various illnesses such as obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases are all issues of public health that relate to nutrition. Many of these have a disproportionate effect on specific communities such as those of color, veterans, children, and the aged. Therefore, evaluating health risks for differing populations and developing prevention and treatment strategies to reduce these risks requires highly innovative and interdisciplinary nutrition research and practice.

Our department is leading the field of nutrition to address public health concerns by conducting research that spans from basic mechanisms to social science, clinical interventions, and public policy, which ultimately impact nutrition practice. As an example, our department is improving nutrition equity by promoting healthier diets within our state and globally, with collaborations spanning nearly every continent. The department is also leading cutting-edge research into the linkages between diets, food systems, and the environment to promote both human and planetary health.

The mission of our department is to improve and protect the public’s health through teaching, research and practices that foster optimal nutrition. Our department is the only school of nutrition that is uniquely situated in a school of public health and a school of medicine. Our faculty are global leaders in a wide range of scientific areas, including clinical nutrition, medicine, laboratory and population-based research and public policy. Given our breadth of interdisciplinary expertise, our undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to postdoctoral fellows, acquire unique experiences and insights on the connections among the subdisciplines of nutrition, which prepares them to become the next generation of exceptional leaders in their fields. Our areas of focus in the department are balanced by a strong commitment to research, training, and practice that improves the health of people locally and globally including underserved communities.

If you are contemplating a career that focuses on nutrition, we hope you will consider the Gillings School of Public Health and the Department of Nutrition.

With Warm Regards,
Raz Shaikh

Saame “Raz” Shaikh, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Nutrition, Co-Director of UNC NORC.