Josiemer Mattei, Karestan Koenen, Margaret Kruk honored at Alice Hamilton Award lecture
November 18, 2021—Josiemer Mattei, Donald and Sue Pritzker Associate Professor of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is the recipient of this year’s Alice Hamilton Award. She delivered the award lecture virtually on November 15.
Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology, and Margaret Kruk, professor of health systems, were also recognized at the event with the newly renamed Marianne Wessling-Resnick Memorial Mentoring award. Wessling-Resnick, professor of nutritional biochemistry and former director of the PhD Program in Biological Sciences, died in 2019.
Presented annually by the School’s Committee on the Advancement of Women Faculty (CAWF), the Alice Hamilton award recognizes a female faculty member for her impact in public health and future promise. It also honors the memory of Hamilton, a pioneer in the fields of toxicology and occupational health, who was the first woman appointed to the Harvard faculty.
Mattei’s research focuses on the role of dietary, genetic, and sociocultural factors on type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity in minority groups, particularly Hispanic/Latinx people in the U.S. and Latin America. She is the principal investigator of the PROSPECT project, an island-wide longitudinal cohort study of chronic disease risk factors in adults in Puerto Rico. Mattei is also involved in projects looking at traditional diets and cardiometabolic health, especially in Latin America, and at addressing food access and health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to her research accomplishments, Mattei is known as a mentor and a strong advocate for the inclusion and advancement of underrepresented groups in science and academia.
Jane Kim, dean for academic affairs and K.T. Li Professor of Health Economics, gave opening remarks and presented the mentoring award. Sebastien Haneuse, professor of biostatistics, introduced Mattei.
