IU School of Public Health Researcher will head Obesity Research Interest Section

The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) recently selected Dr. Nana Gletsu-Miller of Indiana University's School of Public Health-Bloomington to chair its Obesity Research Interest Section (RIS). An associate professor of Nutrition Science, Gletsu-Miller primarily focuses on nutritional interventions targeting obesity-related disease; nutrition after bariatric surgery; nutrient bioavailability; and prevention of type 2 diabetes in adolescents.

"The American Society for Nutrition encompasses a really broad group, from people who are doing work in nutrition at the molecular level all the way to people working in human clinical studies and people who engage in community and global nutrition," Gletsu-Miller says. "It's a wide span of not only researchers like myself but also clinicians and people involved in policy and government."

The ASN includes 18 Research Interest Sections through which specific areas of nutrition research are represented and advanced. The Obesity RIS, in particular, is the largest, and its members are, in part, tasked with reviewing and ranking hundreds of abstracts submitted for possible inclusion at the ASN annual conference.

"We also organize webinars where we invite exciting, preeminent speakers in the field to present to the group," Gletsu-Miller continues. "This is an exciting opportunity, and I look forward to being part of it." She will chair the Obesity RIS for one year.

For their part, both IU Bloomington School of Public Health Dean David B. Allison and Dr. Andrew W. Brown have held the Obesity RIS chair position previously. "The RIS organizes programming for the annual meeting, facilitates scientific exchange among members, and fosters the interests and careers of early career scientists," Brown says. "As a former chair and a continued member of the group, I look forward to seeing what Dr. Gletsu-Miller will bring to advance the interests of members at the interface of nutrition and obesity."

"My work falls at the intersection of not only obesity but also vitamins and minerals—nutrients that are essential without which we develop deficiency diseases," Gletsu-Miller explains. She served as chair of the ASN Vitamins and Minerals RIS in the past.

In addition to Chair-Elect Gletsu-Miller, current officers in the ASN Obesity RIS include Chair Drew Sayer; Past Chair Jennifer Nasser; Secretary Jen Oslund; Postdoctoral Representative Matthew Landry; Graduate Student Representative Katelyn Senkus; and At-Large Member Christian Wright.