Academic Appointments

• Assistant Professor and Director of Basic and Translational Research, Emory Endosurgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
• Assistant Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
• Director of Graduate Studies, Nutrition and Health Studies Graduate Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Emory University

Clinical Appointment
Research Nutritionist, Emory Bariatric Center

Telephone
404.712.2033

Affiliations

• Emory University Hospital
• The Emory Clinic

Education

• PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 1998
• BSc in Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, 1990

Current Organizational Memberships

• American Society of Nutritional Sciences
• Canadian Society of Nutritional Sciences
• North American Association for the Study of Obesity
• American Diabetes Association
• NIH Network of Minority Research Investigators

Research Interests

• Using clinical weight loss intervention studies to identify links between excess adiposity and obesity-related pathology including insulin resistance, beta-cell dysfunction, and cardiometabolic syndrome.
• Mechanisms of action of adipose tissue-induced insulin resistance including inflammation and oxidative stress.
• Identifying biomarkers of insulin resistance using proteomic analysis of plasma samples obtained from patients undergoing weight loss.
• Comparisons between surgical, pharmaceutical, and medical approaches of disease risk prevention in the severely obese patient population.

Year Joined the Department of Surgery at Emory
2002

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