Shiriki K. Kumanyika, PhD, MPH
| Office Location | 3401 Market |
| Office Phone | 215-898-2629 |
| skumanyi@mail.med.upenn.edu | |
Faculty Information | |
| CCEB Appointment | Senior Scholar, Epidemiology |
| Primary Faculty Appointment | Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania SOM |
Additional Positions
Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of Pennsylvania SOM
Senior Advisor and Senior Scholar, Center for Public Health Initiatives
Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Pediatrics, Section on Nutrition, CHOP
Senior Fellow, Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania SOM
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania
Faculty Associate, Penn Institute for Urban Research
Research Statement
Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika has an interdisciplinary background and holds advanced degrees in social work, nutrition, and public health. She is a professor of epidemiology (Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Department of Pediatrics (Section on Nutrition)), and the associate dean for health promotion and disease prevention at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. She was the founding director of Penn's Master of Public Health program, serving in this role from the program's inception in 2002 until May of 2007.
Dr. Kumanyika has received research funding from the NIH, CDC, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on several randomized multi-center and single-center clinical trials or observational studies of diet, obesity, weight control, and chronic disease risk. Her current and recent studies involve the development and evaluation of interventions to prevent or treat obesity and promote healthy eating and physical activity in African American children and adults and Latino adults, in clinical or community-based settings. In 2002, Dr. Kumanyika founded the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) which seeks to improve the quantity, quality, and effective translation of research on weight issues in African American communities. She has published extensively in the scientific literature and lectured widely within the United States and abroad. She is the lead editor of the Handbook of Obesity Prevention, published in 2007
Dr. Kumanyika has served on numerous advisory or expert panels related to nutrition and chronic disease research and policy, both nationally and internationally. She has been a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board and several IOM committees. Internationally, Dr. Kumanyika has chaired the Prevention Group of the International Obesity Task Force, served as chair or co-chair of World Health Organization panels on global nutrition and obesity issues, and is a member of the World Cancer Research Fund Expert Panel on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer. Her honors include election to membership in the IOM (2003) and receipt of the inaugural Population Research Prize from the American Heart Association (2005).
