Shiriki Kumanyika

Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University

Dr. Kumanyika is Research Professor of Community Health and Prevention at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, and Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kumanyika earned her PhD in Human Nutrition from Cornell University, MS in Social work from Columbia University, and MPH from Johns Hopkins University. She is Founder and Chair of the Council on Black Health, formerly known as the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN).

Dr. Kumanyika’s research focuses on identifying effective strategies to reduce nutrition-related chronic disease risks, with a particular focus on achieving health equity for black Americans. For more than 30 years, she has led or collaborated on single or multi-center randomized clinical trials or observational studies related to obesity, sodium intake, and other aspects of diet and lifestyle. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is a past president of the American Public Health Association.