AH&H Advisory Committee

Oldways brought together a team of experts to help develop the African Heritage Diet Pyramid. This committee includes culinary historians, nutrition scientists, and public health experts, each focused on African descendant health and history. These advisors were essential to the creation of the African Heritage Diet Pyramid, and they continue to oﬀer their expertise with the African Heritage & Health programs. Oldways thanks each one of them.

Oldways thanks the Walmart Foundation for its support of the African Heritage & Health program.

Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, RD, CDE, CDN

ADA National Spokesperson, Author

Constance is an award winning registered dietitian, certiﬁed diabetes educator, national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and is the author of The Diabetes Guide to Enjoying Foods of the World (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2018), The African American Guide To Living Well...

Angela Ginn-Meadow, RD, LDN, CDE

Fit4D Nutrition Coach

Angela works as an education coordinator/nutrition diabetes educator at the University of Maryland Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Maryland General Hospital, where she counsels patients on treating and managing diabetes and other endocrine diseases. She is the owner of Real Talk Real Food...

Allan J. Johnson, PhD

Associate Dean, Professor and Chairman, Howard University

Dr. Allan Johnson is Associate Dean of the Division of Allied Health Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Howard University, and a Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. He holds a B.Sc. degree (First Class Honors) in Chemistry from McGill...

Robert Hall, PhD

Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, Northeastern University

Robert L. Hall has been an Associate Professor of African-American Studies at Northeastern University since 1989. Among numerous other fellowships he has held, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and he has been a key researcher at the Center for...

Jessica B. Harris, PhD

Cookbook Author, Professor, Queens College, CUNY

Educator and culinary historian Jessica Harris is the author of twelve cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora. Her most recent book is High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America . She has written extensively about the culture of Africa in the Americas,...

Kristie Lancaster, PhD

Associate Professor of Nutrition

Steinhart School of Culture, Education and Human Development, NYU

As a Professor of Nutrition and registered dietitian, Dr. Lancaster’s research centers on the role of nutrition in chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. Kristie works with African Americans and other vulnerable populations such as Latinos and older adults to understand...

Vivien Morris, MS, RD, MPH, LDN

Dietitian, Director of Community Initiatives for the NFL Program,

Boston Medical Center

Vivien Morris is the Director of Community Initiatives for the NFL Program (Nutrition & Fitness for Life). She oversees nutrition education and ﬁtness programs and projects to improve access to healthy, aﬀordable foods and physical activity in under-served communities. Vivien is a clinical...

Frederick Douglass Opie, PhD

Author, Professor of History and Foodways, Babson College

Frederick Douglass Opie lectures and writes about labor, culture, and foodways. He is the author of three books including Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America , and a blogger at Hog and Hominy: Culture, Cooking, Travel, and Traditions , where he provides “Daily Musings on Culture,...

Tambra Raye Stevenson

Food Justice Advocate, NativSol

Washington, DC

Honored as the 2014 “Nutrition Hero” by Food & Nutrition Magazine, Tambra Raye is an inspiring speaker, nutrition justice advocate, and consultant. The award-winning Tufts-trained health communicator has emerged as a media source for NBC’s The Grio, WHUR-FM, Huﬀ Post, Washington Post, Sirius XM...

Toni Tipton-Martin

Journalist, Founder of SANDE, Community Activist

Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist and community activist who, after 30 years of teaching cooking and nutrition in media and workshops, founded The SANDE Youth Project, a nonproﬁt organization that uses cultural heritage, organic gardening, basic cooking skills, and nutrition to improve...

Katherine Tucker, PhD

Professor, Director of the Center for Population Health

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Dr. Katherine L. Tucker is a Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology in the Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences and Director of the Center for Population Health at UMass Lowell. She is Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Nutrition, an international review journal. Dr. Tucker has contributed...

Gail Pettiford Willett

Nutrition and Health Coach

Gail Pettiford Willett, a board member for South African Partners, has worked in the human services ﬁeld for 30 years. She recently retired as the Program Coordinator for the Cambridge Public Library and is now a Nutrition and Health Coach. She has worked as a consultant and researcher of children’...

Walter Willett, MD, DrPH

Chair and Frederick J. Stare Professor, Department of Nutrition

Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Willett is a renowned physician, nutrition researcher, and Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Willett is the principal investigator of the second Nurses’ Health Study, a compilation of...

Akua Woolbright, PhD

Senior Healthy Eating and Wellness Educator, Whole Foods Market

With a Ph.D. in Nutritional Science and an MA in Sociology, Akua has been a strong embassador for community health elevation for many years. As the Wellness Educator at Whole Foods Headquarters, Akua develops healthy eating and outreach programs, conducts educational trainings, and coordinates...

Sara Baer-Sinnott

President, Oldways

Sara Baer-Sinnott is President of Oldways, a nonproﬁt food and nutrition organization helping people live healthier, happier lives through cultural food traditions and lifestyles. She has been an instrumental ﬁgure at Oldways since its early days, joining the staﬀ in 1992 to...

Search form

You are here