Mira Mehta-Gupta- Director, Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, Maryland Cooperative Extension, department of nutrition and food science
Expertise: Community, youth and international nutrition

Credentials: Training and implementation of 'Eat Right Keep Moving' program to increase physical activity and improve health and diet in Baltimore City Elementary Schools, 4th and 5th grade curriculum; Introduction of community based diabetes education for the reduction of race (and ethnic) based disparities in Maryland; Food systems assessment of Baltimore City; Program to improve birth outcomes for pregnant teenagers in Prince George's County Public Schools
Contact: mmehta@umd.edu; (301) 405-1006
Web site: www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nfsc/mehta.htm

Robert T. Jackson - Associate professor, nutrition and food science, University of Maryland
Expertise: International nutrition; nutritional anemias, diet and chronic diseases; studies nutritional anemias and their causes and distribution among various population groups in the U.S. and around the world; also studies nutritional determinants of chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus, mainly in low income countries

Credentials: Has been a consultant for World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, and for various governments; has designed and evaluated anemia and other micro nutrient reduction programs for governments of several low-income countries, including Egypt, Kuwait and Liberia.
Contact: rj36@umail.umd.edu; Ellen Ternes, (301) 405-4627, Website: www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nfsc/jackson.htm

Nadine Sahyoun - assistant professor, nutrition and food science, University of Maryland
Expertise: Nutrition and aging - "I study relationships between nutritional status, i.e. dietary intake, biochemical markers, body weight, lifestyle and chronic disease outcome, among older adults."

Contact: (301) 405-8774; ns91@umail.umd.edu
Website: www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nfsc/sahyoun.htm

Howard Leathers - Associate professor, agricultural and resource economics, University of Maryland
Expertise: World food supply and demand (world hunger), including Africa; general state of the world and future prospects

Credentials: Senior staff economist, President's Council of Economic Advisers, 1992-93; author, numerous articles, American Journal of Economic Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, National Food Review
Contact: (301) 405-1277; howardl@arec.umd.edu
Website: http://www.arec.umd.edu/hleathers/

Bettye K. Walters - Director, Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland
Expertise: Food security and food safety in developing countries; international trade issues, intercultural communications concerns; meat and poultry safety

Credentials: Teaches International Veterinary Medicine; Advanced Food Safety for Veterinarians: Perspectives, Practice and Policy-- food borne hazards, testing and sampling, prevention and control strategies through the food chain, including Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points systems; attended World Veterinary Congress, Tunisia, '02
Contact: (301) 314-6821; bw93@umail.umd.edu
Website: www.vetmed.umd.edu/cgcvm/faculty.html

Fatimah Jackson - Professor, departments of anthropology and agriculture and natural resources, University of Maryland
Expertise: Ecological, genetic and anthropological interactions of humans and their domesticated plants, spec. West Africa; "I study the phytochemicals in commonly consumed plant foods and track their metabolic and behavorial effects on human consumers. Since plants are chemical arsenals, it is not difficult to find many complex interactions between plants and their human consumers and sometimes between human pathogens as well. Most of my research has been on the cyanogenic glycosides in cassava (manioc) roots and leaves, which are widely consumed throughout the tropics."

Credentials: Extensive research in West Africa on human-plant interactions; working on book "How Plants Domesticated People"
Contact: (301) 405-1431; fj6@umail.umd.edu
Website: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/masters/faculty/jackson.htm (see African plant Explorer.)