About Food EDU
Mission and Vision
Food EDU is an open-access educational platform advancing translational research that combines food, agriculture, health and nutrition. With curricula that span disciplines and geographies, we aim to promote scientific literacy and interdisciplinary collaboration and to empower leaders across the globe to advance data-driven solutions to food system challenges.
Planetary health and sustainable food systems frameworks are integrated throughout our offerings to foster a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between food systems, human health and the environment, equipping learners with the tools to address intersecting challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity and malnutrition.
At Food EDU, we take a collaborative approach to curriculum development – bridging the gap between research innovation and educational opportunity, working with world-renowned experts to deliver trusted, cutting-edge science through engaging storytelling.
Equitable access to robust, trusted science education is crucial for current and future scientists, health professionals, and policymakers. Food EDU's vision is to prepare a multi-sector workforce skilled in applying evidence-based science and technology to advance human and planetary health.
Structure and Support
Food EDU was seeded as a PTFI capacity strengthening effort to advance human and planetary health using food composition tools and data. It has grown into a platform to integrate cutting-edge research and data science in food, agriculture, health, and nutrition for application and impact.
Food EDU is facilitated by the American Heart Association and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT as co-secretariats of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative.
Food EDU is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Fourfold Foundation.
With backgrounds in environmental science, sociology, biochemistry, nutrition, and public health, our core team at the American Heart Association is committed to advancing interdisciplinary food systems education for the benefit of human and planetary health.
Selena Ahmed, PhD
Global Director, PTFI; Dean, Food EDU at the American Heart Association
Kevin Cody, PhD
Senior Program Manager
Jackie Bertoldo, DrPH, MPH, RDN
Senior Curriculum and Product Manager
Britt Molde, MPH
Program Manager
Leading experts in their fields, our advisory committee helps define our learning objectives and contribute to the lessons that make up our interdisciplinary courses.
Alejandro Cifuentes, PhD
Full Research Professor Laboratory of Foodomics, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL) Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Bruce German, PhD
Professor, Food Science & Technology
University of California, Davis
Timothy Griffin, PhD
Associate Professor Dean of Educational Affairs
– ad interim Division Chair – Agriculture Food and Environment Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán, MD, MSc
Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore Graduate School, Director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health in Costa Rica, and Senior Advisor of the Planetary Health Alliance at the Johns Hopkins University
Anna Lartey, PhD
Professor of Nutrition
University of Ghana, Ghana
Daphne Miller, MD
Family Physician, Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco, and Research Scientist at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health
Joe Tohme, PhD
Director, Crops for Nutrition and Health
Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Natalia Vázquez Manjarrez, PhD
Staff Researcher Periodic Table of Food Initiative, Center of Excellence PI,
Metabolic Diseases Research Unit, National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition, Mexico
