Vatanparast Nutritional Epidemiology Lab (VNEL)

Research Area(s)

  • Food and Nutrition Security
  • Food Systems
  • Childhood Stunting and Malnutrition in Poverty Settings
  • Nutrition and Public Health

Background

Michele is a nutritionist and dietitian graduated from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, Masters in University Teaching from Universidad del Istmo, Masters in Public Health and epidemiology at Rafael Landívar University. She obtained her PhD degree in Epidemiology from the University of Saskatchewan. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow (PDF) at the College of Pharmcy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan. With epidemiology studies at the Harvard School of Public Health, the International Epidemiological Association, University of Washington. Postgraduate course in Food composition data by the University of Wageningen and Certification of specialist in Professional Education in Obesity (SCOPE) by the World Federation of Obesity, among others. She has taught in Guatemala research and Food Security related courses in the Nutrition Degree and the Masters. She was an Associate Researcher at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. With awards for teaching and research and profesional merits. Her interest is to promote justice and reduce the inequity with which health services,  and education are delivered to populations living in rural areas, especially the Mayan people, from whom she descends. She is also a member of VNEL Laboratory, Research Unit on Food and Nutrition Security (UNISAN-USAC), the Urban Health Network for Latin America and the Caribbean, the International Malnutrition Task Force Group of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Title of Research Project

The role of milk and yogurt supplementation on bone health, body composition and gut health in Canadian young adults

Most Recent Publications

  • NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). (2020). Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants. The Lancet, 396(10261), 1511-1524.
  • McGuire, M. K., Seppo, A., Goga, A., Buonsenso, D., Collado, M. C., Donovan, S. M., ... & Van de Perre, P. (2020). Best Practices for Human Milk Collection for COVID-19 Research. Breastfeeding Medicine.
  • Annan, R. A., Aduku, L. N. E., Kyei-Boateng, S., Yuen, H. M., Pickup, T., Pulman, A., ... & Choi, S. (2020). Implementing effective eLearning for scaling up global capacity building: findings from the malnutrition elearning course evaluation in Ghana. Global health action, 13(1), 1831794.