Faculty

Loma Linda University | Loma Linda University Medical Center

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About LLU

Nutrition Faculty & Staff

Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH

Chair, Department of Nutrition
Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Program Coordinator, MPH Nutrition & Epidemiology

Email: jsabate@llu.edu

From Spain, Dr. Sabaté is a board certified physician in internal medicine who moved to the U.S. to further train in Public Health Nutrition. He obtained the degree of Doctor of Public Health in Nutrition from Loma Linda University. He was an American Heart Association post doctoral fellow in the Preventive Medicine Department then became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and in the Department of Nutrition. Shortly after, he rose to Associate Professor. In 1998 he was named Chair of the Department of Nutrition while continuing his teaching commitments in epidemiology.

Dr. Sabaté served as principal investigator in a nutritional study that directly linked the consumption of walnuts to significant reductions in serum cholesterol. His findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1993 and received the attention of more than 400 media sources, both national and international. Dr. Sabaté's most recent research has focused on the relationship of almonds, pecans, and walnuts to heart disease risk factors. He has served as a co-investigator of the Adventist Health Study, a cohort study of nearly 60,000 Seventh-day Adventists and the relationships between their diets and various diseases and is currently a co-investigator of the Adventist Health Study - 2, which will enroll 100,000 Seventh-day Adventists.

He has also conducted considerable research in the area of vegetarian nutrition, is editor of the book Vegetarian Nutrition published in 2001, and was the principal architect of the Vegetarian Food Guide Pyramid released in 1997 at the 3rd International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition and redesigned in 2008. As co-chair of the 3rd International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in 1997, chair of the 4th edition of the congress in 2002 and of the 5th congress in 2008, Dr. Sabaté has been influential in helping establish the scientific evidence of the health benefits of vegetarian diets.

Current research interests:

nutritional properties of tree nuts and their impact on chronic disease; health benefits of vegetarian nutrition; development and validation of dietary assessment methods

Zaida Cordero-MacIntyre, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition

Email: zcordero-macintyre@llu.edu

After completing her doctoral degree in Pharmacy in Bolivia, South America, Dr. MacIntyre earned an MPH in Environmental and Tropical Health and an MS in Nutrition from Loma Linda University. She continued her graduate education at the University of Arizona, receiving her PhD in Nutrition Science. She is a registered environmental health specialist in the state of California. She is also a registered dietitian. In 1995 she joined the faculty at the Department of Nutrition. Dr. Cordero-MacIntyre is also part of the research faculty of the Center of Health Care Disparities and Molecular Medicine in the School of Medicine.

Much of Dr. Cordero-MacIntyre's research endeavors have been in the area of obesity and diabetes. She has many published articles and abstracts. She is currently conducting research on diabetes in the Hispanic community. This study is funded by a grant from the National Institutes for Health.

Current research interests:

obesity, diabetes

Ella Haddad, DrPH

Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition
Program Coordinator, MPH Nutrition coordinated program

Email: ehaddad@llu.edu

Dr. Haddad completed her undergraduate work at La Sierra University in Riverside, California and became a registered dietitian. She obtained the MS and DrPH degrees in 1978 from Loma Linda University. Moving to the Middle East she taught at both Middle East College and the American University of Beirut before returning to Loma Linda as Assistant Professor, now Associate Professor. She is the Coordinator of the MPH program.

In addition to her many teaching and administrative responsibilities, Dr. Haddad is the resident nutritional biochemist for the department. She has been instrumental in conducting the laboratory research for each of the department feeding trials, training students in biochemical analyses techniques. She provides hands-on learning experience to those with an interest in laboratory work. Dr. Haddad is also supervising the laboratory work for sub-studies of the Adventist Health Study-2, a cohort study of approximately 100,000 Seventh-day Adventist participants.

Dr. Haddad serves in many associations and committees including the American Dietetic Association, American Public Health Association, the Society for Nutrition Education, the California Nutrition Council, and the Inland District Dietetic Association where she served as the chair of the legislative committee. And, she recently served as president of the Association of Graduate Programs in Public Health Nutrition.

Current research interests:

vegetarian diets; nutritional properties of pecans and other nuts

Sujatha Rajaram, PhD

Program Coordinator, MS Nutritional Science & Program
Coordinator, DrPH Nutrition
Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition

Email: srajaram@llu.edu

Dr. Rajaram comes to Loma Linda University by way of her native country India. She completed her undergraduate work at Madras University in India and obtained her master of science degree from Home Science University in Coimbatore, India. She received a Research Assistantship from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana where she obtained her PhD in Foods and Nutrition. She was able to gain considerable teaching and research experience during her doctoral program and went on to a post doctoral fellowship at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN. In 1994 she came to Loma Linda University where she is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Director of the doctoral program in nutrition.

In addition to her teaching and administrative duties, Dr. Rajaram has a significant role in the research activities of the department. She was the co-principle investigator of the feeding study comparing the effects of walnuts and fish on blood lipids and fatty acids, and co-investigator in two other nut feeding studies on almonds and pecans. She served on the Scientific Committee of the 4th (co-chair) and 5th (chair) International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition, held in 2002 and 2008, respectively.

Current research interests:

Nuts and prevention of chronic diseases
N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from plant and marine sources and their role in chronic disease prevention

Michelle Wien, DrPH, RD,

Coordinator, Field Practicum Program

Email: mwien@llu.edu

Upon graduating from college, Dr. Wien became a certified diabetes educator and worked as a dietitian with an emphasis on diabetes. Earning her master of science degree at California State Polytechnic Institute, she came to Loma Linda University for her doctoral program. Upon receiving her DrPH in the Department of Nutrition, she became a post doctoral fellow at The City of Hope and Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, California. Following two years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, she returned to LLU in 2007 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition. She manages the field practicum program for the department.

Nutrition research has been an important component of her endeavors since beginning her doctoral program. As the Principal Investigator on two research studies, Dr. Wien has focused her activities on the nutritional properties of almonds, most recently on The Metabolic Effects of Almond Consumption in Adults with Pre-Diabetes.

Dr. Wien is a member of the American Dietetic Association, serving as chair of the Association Positions Committee from 2005 to 2007. She is also an active member of the American Diabetes Association, the California Dietetic Association, and the National Lipid Association.

Current research interests:

weight management, diabetes treatment and prevention

Karen Jaceldo-Siegl, DrPH

Email: kjaceldo@llu.edu

Dr. Jaceldo comes to Loma Linda by way of Texas where she completed her undergraduate work in chemistry and obtained her masters degree in Nutrition. In 2003 she earned a doctor in public health degree in nutrition from Loma Linda University. She then became a full time research associate for the Adventist Health Study-2, a NIH funded research program at the LLU School of Public Health. This is a cohort study of Seventh-day Adventists in US and Canada designed to determine the relationship between their diets and chronic disease. Her role in AHS-2 has given her the opportunity to focus on the validation of food frequency questionnaires using dietary recalls and biomarkers as references, of interest to her since her graduate studies.

Concurrent with her post at the AHS-2, Dr. Jaceldo holds the position of research assistant professor in the department of nutrition. As the title suggests, her work in the department is primarily focused on research, with emphasis on the nutrition and health benefits of soy consumption. Under a grant from the Soy Nutrition Institute she has conducted research to determine the correlation between childhood exposure to soy and growth patterns. She has also conducted research on the effects of almond consumption on blood lipids, body weight and food and nutrient displacement. She is first author of journal articles on both soy and almonds.

Her primary contribution to academics is by way of mentoring doctoral students, serving on several dissertation committees, and shepherding MPH and DrPH students through their research projects. She is also a frequent guest lecturer for nutrition and epidemiology department courses. Dr. Jaceldo-Siegl is a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Nutrition Sciences. She serves as manuscript reviewer for the Journal of the American College of Nutrition and for the 5^th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition proceedings.

Current research interests:

food frequency questionnaire validation, nuts and soy consumption and health outcomes, dietary assessment methods

Gina Siapco, DrPH

Email: gsiapco@llu.edu

A graduate of the doctoral program at Loma Linda University, Department of Nutrition, Dr. Gina Segovia-Siapco has returned to the department in April 2009 as assistant professor. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) in Cavite, Philippines. Upon completion of her doctoral degree from LLU in 2004, she returned to her native Philippines to resume her teaching position at AIIAS where she served as chair of the Department of Public Health at the School of Graduate Studies from 2006 to 2009. Aside from teaching nutrition courses and mentoring thesis and dissertation students, Dr. Siapco was the associate editor of the school's multidisciplinary research journal and often served as a resource person for nutrition conferences in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

Dr Siapco was involved in research projects during her doctoral studies which allowed her to focus on validating food frequency questionnaires to assess food and nutrient intake. She has presented at a number of international nutrition conferences and published several abstracts and peer-reviewed articles in leading nutrition journals. Dr. Siapco is a member of the American Society of Nutrition, American Public Health Association, Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, and Nutritionist-Dietitians' Association of the Philippines.

Current research interests:

effect of legume intake on health; development and validation of food frequency questionnaires

Eddy Jara

Email: ejara@llu.edu

Dr. Jara has a shared appointment with both the Department of Global Health and the Department of Nutrition. His doctoral work has looked at how to disseminate promising school food practices in working class communities of color. Dr. Jara's early professional career was defined by his work promoting improved school nutrition and physical activity options in predominantly Latino middle and high schools in the Inland Empire. In Ecuador, he worked as a Technical Health Trainer with Peace Corps volunteers and on several community projects advancing child malnutrition prevention, identification and treatment.

Current research interests:

studying efforts to improve youth and family access to healthy foods and training lay public health workers in health education and promotion

Nico Rizzo

Email: nrizzo@llu.edu

Nico S. Rizzo is completing a 2-year postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Nutrition. He obtained a Masters of Science degree from the Justus Liebig Universität in Gießen, Germany and a PhD in Medicine from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the recipient of the European Union Socrates/Erasmus Scholarship for studies conducted at Karolinska Institutet previous to his PhD studies. His doctoral research focused on the associations between physical activity, cardio respiratory fitness and metabolic risk factors. His work was done in collaboration with the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS) whose main aim is to study the nature, strength and interactions between personal, environmental and lifestyles influences on CVD risk in European children of differing age, sex, culture and ethnicity.

He has authored several peer reviewed international journal articles on physical activity and chronic disease. Dr. Rizzo has been a lecturer at the Department of Bioscience and Nutrition and the Department of Medical Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet and a guest lecturer at the CASCADE Network of Excellence which seeks durable coordination and integration of European research on the human health effects of chemical residues in food and is funded by the European Commission.

Beside his academic teaching appointments Dr. Rizzo has conducted prevention focused health seminars in Europe, Puerto Rico, Micronesia and developing countries. During his time at Loma Linda he will integrate dietary and nutritional factors into his previous research allowing him to explore new methodologies and interactive ways of examining associations between physical activity, nutrition and chronic disease risk factors. He is a co-investigator of a project focusing on nutrition-gene interaction and trans-generational inheritance funded by the Swedish Research Council and an ambassador of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. He is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, and the Nutrition Society.