Assistant Professor (TT); Center for Health Equity (CHE) - Open Department, School of Public Health

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health seeks applicants for a full-time faculty position at the Assistant Professor level with expertise in food and nutrition security.

Successful applicants will be affiliated with the Center for Health Equity and be located at the Houston location, and placement within one of 3 departments: Epidemiology, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, Management, Policy, and Community Health. The UTHealth Houston School of Public Health has six locations across Texas, providing unique collaborative opportunities. To learn more about the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health at https://sph.uth.edu/

 Position Key Accountabilities:

1.        Provide educational leadership, including classroom teaching and mentoring to graduate students.

2.        Have a track record of research publications commensurate with academic rank.

3.        Demonstrated success at securing external funding, preferably with active NIH, USDA, or other federally funded studies (i.e., foundation grants - RWJF, AHA).

4.        Develop and implement research related to community, clinical health, and/or population health initiatives related to non-medical drivers of health, specifically food and nutrition security.

5.        Contribute protocols and outcome metrics to community health and clinical sites and work collaboratively with UTHealth SPH faculty and Center for Health Equity colleagues to submit research proposals for external funding.

Qualifications:

·         PhD or DrPH in nutrition or a related field

·         2 years of research experience in Food Is Medicine, culinary medicine, aging studies, public health, or related areas

·         Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN)

·         Eligible for licensure in Texas

·         Public health/population health researchers with training and expertise in one of the following areas related to the non-medical drivers of

        health:

Ø  Food Is Medicine – Application of Food Is Medicine interventions, such as medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, and medical tailored

     meals, integrated with health systems to prevent and treat chronic diseases.

Ø  Culinary medicine - Application of evidence-based nutrition and culinary knowledge to prevent and treat chronic diseases through food-based

     interventions.

Ø  Aging studies - Research focused on the complex interplay between nutrition, food security, and healthy aging, with particular emphasis on

    cognitive health and dementia prevention. This includes investigating nutritional interventions to prevent or slow cognitive decline, examining

     the role of specific dietary patterns (such as the Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets) in maintaining cognitive function and reducing

      dementia risk.

Ø  Chronic disease prevention - Independent and collaborative research in chronic disease prevention and management (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, cancer) across diverse populations using dietary approaches.

Ø  Dissemination and implementation science - Study of methods to promote systematic uptake of research findings and evidence-based

     practices into routine healthcare and public health practice to improve population health

Interested applicants should complete the web application. Please attach a letter describing your qualifications and interests, a curriculum vitae, and contact information for three professional references when you apply at UTHealth Houston Careers. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the positions are filled.

Address correspondence and any questions to the search committee chair: Steve Kelder, PhD, email: [email protected].  Please be sure to add CHE Faculty Search in your message subject line.

UTHealth Houston offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package. For more information on our benefits programs, please refer to the UTHealth Office of Benefits Website   https://www.utsystem.edu/offices/employee-benefits