University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FACULTY
Diana S. Grigsby-Toussaint, PhD, MPH
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health
Diana S. Grigsby-Toussaint, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A major focus of her work involves exploring theoretical and practical considerations in the conduct of epidemiologic studies related to diabetes, obesity and related co-morbidities among youth and vulnerable populations. Grigsby-Toussaint holds Masters and Doctoral Degrees in International Health and Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology.
Juan E. Andrade, PhD
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Dr. Andrade’s long term goal is to develop sustainable strategies that can be used to deliver adequate nutrition, especially micronutrients, to residents of developing countries and thereby help to promote human health and economic development. His research interests are focused on food fortification, point-of-care technologies for assessment of micronutrient deficiencies, quality of food aid products, and service, experiential learning education programs. Dr. Andrade received his BS in Agricultural Sciences with a minor in Food Technology from Zamorano University in 1999. In 2000, he was visitor scholar in the Cowpea/Bean CRSP project housed in the Department of Food Science. He finished his PhD in Human Nutrition which was focused on the role of flavonoids antioxidants in oxidative stress in 2005. He is an assistant professor in the FSHN.
“The UCOUNT project is an excellent platform to promote awareness on our campus community on broad nutrition and health issues. Sub-Saharan African countries such as Uganda are going through a nutrition transition that requires significant attention as populations move away from poverty and food insecurity.”
Juliet Iwelunmor, PhD
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health
Dr. Iwelunmor’s research explores social, cultural, behavioral, and policy factors that influence the health of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan. She is particularly interested in global health issues, having previously worked as the Culture Sector coordinator for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intersectoral Platform on HIV and AIDS. Dr. Iwelunmor completed her Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health and Demography at The Pennsylvania State University, from which she also received her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies.
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health
Nicki J. Engeseth, PhD
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Professor Engeseth’s research focus is on the study of chemical and biochemical reactions in food products with the eventual goal of manipulation of these pathways for enhancement of food quality. Dr. Engeseth grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. She completed her B.S. degree in 1982 from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She received her M.S. degree from the University of Illinois, Department of Foods and Nutrition, working with Dr. Barbara P. Klein. Her Ph.D. research was conducted with Dr. Ian Gray in the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition at Michigan State University, emphasizing food lipid chemistry. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Engeseth conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. John Ohlrogge at Michigan State University in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, studying plant lipid biochemistry and molecular biology. She is a Professor of Food Chemistry in FSHN.
STUDENTS
Richard Bukenya
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Richard Bukenya is a second year Ph.D. student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His professional mission is to protect the nutrition rights of the vulnerable communities and individuals through education and research. His research interest includes promoting use of high-value crops, community nutrition evaluation, food fortification, emergency nutrition and food security, nutrition policy formulation, and body composition.
Richard is a USAID Borlaug Higher Education Agriculture Research and Development (BHEARD) fellow. BHEARD fellowship is under the Feed the Future program, which is a Global Hunger and Food Security initiative. His research topic is Development and validation of the General Nutrition Knowledge questionnaire for adults in Uganda. UCOUNT seeks to address adverse health outcomes associated with malnutrition in Uganda. His research interests and the above initiatives by USAID and UCOUNT align well and, therefore, drive his interest in the UCOUNT project.
Sandra Darfour-Oduro
Kinesiology and Community Health
Sandra Asantewaa Darfour-Oduro is a PhD student in Community Health at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her BSc in Medical Laboratory Science from University of Ghana and a Master of Science degree in Community Health from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sandra is interested in studying behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases among adolescent girls in low and middle income countries. Sandra teaches Introduction to Epidemiology and has also taught courses in Human Sexuality and Microbiology.
In the future, Sandra hopes to work at the University in Ghana where she can impact a larger population of health scientists through teaching and research on chronic disease prevention. More specifically, she wants to collaborate with the World Health Organization in preventing and reducing health associated issues among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa; thus her interest in the UCOUNT project.
Dayanna Reeves
Kinesiology and Community Health
Dayanna Reeves is a 1st year Ph.D. student in the department of Community Health at UIUC. Her long-term research interests involve disease prevention in ethnic minorities (childhood obesity, diabetes, and hypertension) as well as health policies related to nutrition. Dayanna also has an interest in social and environmental influences on obesity. She is interested in the U-COUNT project because she is passionate about eliminating heath disparities and is interested in helping to develop and maintain safe and healthy nutrition practices for school aged children in Uganda.
Noor Willemsen
Health and Society, Wageningen University and Research Center
Noor Willemsen is an international student from the Netherlands. She studies Health & Society at the University of Wageningen & Research center. Her interests are both the environmental and social influences on people’s health as well as people’s lifestyle and health behaviors. Also, she focuses on the different health policies and how they influence people’s choices. Because of her knowledge in communication, she works with people from different study areas.
She is interested in the U-COUNT program because she is interested in the knowledge of nutrition and lifestyle of people from different countries and cultures. She finds it important to help people and at the same time considering their culture and beliefs. This way, she hopes to be able to create healthy nutrition practices for school aged children in Uganda which they can adopt in their culture.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
James M. Ntambi, PhD
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Department of Biochemistry
Makerere University, Uganda
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Professor John Muyonga, PhD
School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering
John Muyonga is a Professor of Food Science and Dean of the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering at Makerere University. He holds a B.Sc. in Food Science from Makerere University, an M.S. in Food Science from Cornell University and a PhD from University of Pretoria. Prof Muyonga’s research interests include development and scaling up of nutritionally dense food products for vulnerable groups, design and monitoring of community nutrition interventions, characterisation of nutraceutical components from foods materials and valorisation of food processing by-products waste. Since 2009, Prof. Muyonga has been involved in a large WFP supported intervention promoting Community Based supplementary feeding in North Eastern Uganda. Through this intervention over 30,000 malnourished children have been rehabilitated.
“U-COUNT is an opportunity to address malnutrition among school age children in Uganda, a group hither-to not targeted by nutrition programs”
Food Technology Nutrition and Bio-Engineering
Ms. Rhona Baingaina, M.S.
Department of Biochemistry