Regents Professor
Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, 2023
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, professor and head of the School of Public Health Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, is an esteemed researcher and world-renowned scholar with a remarkable commitment to and love for the University of Minnesota. Neumark-Sztainer’s innovative, accomplished, and exemplary work has transformed our collective understanding of eating, activity, and weight-related health in young people, helping to set them on the path to healthy lifestyles. A factor that distinguishes Neumark-Sztainer from many other scholars is her commitment to sharing her research findings with the broader public, and ensuring that her work continues to positively impact the health of the public through clinical practice, school programming, and policy.
Neumark-Sztainer began her career with the University of Minnesota as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics’ Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Programs (LEAH), University of Minnesota Medical School. She joined the School of Public Health as an assistant professor in 1995, was promoted to tenured associate professor in 1999, and full professor in 2004. Her achievements have garnered her numerous awards at the University, including the Distinguished Women Scholars Award; the Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Advising; membership in the Academy for Excellence in Health Research (2017); and being named a McKnight Presidential Professor (2020).
Neumark-Sztainer’s prolific and rigorous scientific work has broken new ground across the globe in several areas of study, including adolescent and young adult nutrition and health; the intergenerational transmission of eating, activity patterns, and weight-related outcomes; and the prevention of eating disorders and obesity. Her research has shaped and is cited in the federal dietary guidelines for the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and is referenced by many non-governmental organizations, including the World Health Organization and medical associations in America, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Mexico. She is one of the top experts in her field of scholarly study, having published roughly 600 scientific publications, which have been cited nearly 85,000 times (h-index: 156). In 2014, Thomson Reuters recognized her among the top 1% of cited researchers in her field, while in 2022, Research.com named her as a leading female scientist (ranked in the top 100 female scientists across all fields in the United States). In 1997, Neumark-Sztainer established what has become the world’s largest and most comprehensive longitudinal body of research examining patterns and predictors of eating, activity, and weight-related health in young people - the ongoing and groundbreaking Project EAT (Eating and Activity among Teens and Young Adults). To date, Project EAT has collected 20 years of follow-up data on two diverse cohorts during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty at all levels and from all corners of the world, seek out Neumark-Sztainer as a mentor. She is deeply dedicated to ensuring that her mentees have successful and productive careers. In line with her desire to enhance the spectrum of researchers working in this area, most program fellows have diverse ethnic and/or racial identities or come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. As recognition of her devotion to teaching and mentoring, she received the School of Public Health’s Leonard M. Schuman Award for Excellence in Teaching. Neumark-Sztainer uses an integrated research-mentoring model, through which she has formally advised and mentored 100 master’s students, 38 PhD students, and 23 postdoctoral fellows. Her former students and mentees include Dr. Jillian Croll, chief strategy officer at The Emily Program; Dr. Meg Bruening, professor and head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Jess Haines, professor and Helderleigh Foundation Chair in Food Literacy at the University of Guelph; Dr. Daheia Barr-Anderson, associate professor in Kinesiology, University of Minnesota; and Dr. Jerica Berge, professor and vice chair for research in Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota.
The School of Public Health appointed Neumark-Sztainer as interim division head of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in December 2014 and as division head in the fall of 2015. The division has flourished under her leadership and has had great research success. Currently, the division holds the second-largest research portfolio among all departments at the University of Minnesota, with an annual research expenditure of approximately $25M, primarily from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Within the division, she established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Team to ensure that diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice drive the development of all policies and practices. She has taken on numerous leadership roles at the University, and at national and international organizations, including the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Program (LEAH) at the University; the advisory council for the National Eating Disorder Association; and the World Health Organization.