Regan Bailey, Ph.D., is a Professor of Behavioral Science and Social Medicine and Director of the Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health at Florida State University. Before this she was a Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Texas A&M University, where for 3 years she served  as the inaugural Director for Precision Nutrition at the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, and a Professor of Nutrition Science at Purdue University, where she held the title of Faculty Scholar with Showalter Distinction. While at Purdue she was the Scientific Director of the Diet Assessment Center within the Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She began her career as a civil servant at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Nutritional Epidemiologist and Director of Career Development within the Office of Dietary Supplements. She also has clinical experience as a practicing Registered Dietitian in acute and long-term care settings. Dr. Bailey’s research program utilizes best practices for characterization of nutritional status, improvement of dietary assessment, and chronic disease risk using a life-course approach. Her research team identified nutrition risk in population subgroups including gender, sex, ancestral origin, degree of urbanicity, age, life stage, food security status, socioeconomic measures, and disease states. This research has identified the need for population-specific interventions and public health policy and supported the need for greater precision in nutrition. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition. Her work has been funded by NIH, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She received her Ph.D. in nutrition sciences and gerontology from Penn State University and her MPH in epidemiology and public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Laura M. Borgelt, Pharm.D., MBA, FCCP, BCPS, is the Chief Operating Officer at the University of Colorado’s Gates Institute, where her responsibilities include working closely with the senior leadership team to implement a strategic visioning process to drive operational excellence. She also is a Professor in the Departments of Clinical Pharmacy and Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is a nationally recognized leader in women’s health with more than 25 years of experience in interdisciplinary education, clinical care, and research. As a long-standing faculty member at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Dr. Borgelt has championed patient safety, access, and quality improvement, particularly in women’s health. She has delivered more than 300 presentations, authored more than 100 publications, and mentored hundreds of students and professionals across medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and allied health. She received her B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Iowa and her Pharm.D. and Executive MBA from the University of Colorado.  

Andrew A. Bremer, M.D., Ph.D., M.A.S., was named Acting Director of the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in April 2025. Since September 2023, he has served as Director of the NIH Office of Nutrition Research (ONR). In this role, working collaboratively with the NIH Institutes and Centers, he works to advance and coordinate nutrition research and participate in the development of new trans-NIH funding initiatives and workshops. Dr. Bremer is committed to the mission of ONR and ODS and wants all partners to know they have an open invitation to reach out to him. He also is currently a co-executive secretary for the federal Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research, the NIH champion for the Global Nutrition Coordination Plan, a steering committee co-chair for the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research, and the NIH liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Nutrition and Section on Obesity. As a member of the ONR Senior Leadership Group, he helped develop the 2020–2030 Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research. Prior to his appointment as the ONR Director, he was the Chief of the Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and held academic positions at the University of California, Davis (2007–2010) and Vanderbilt University (2010–2013). Dr. Bremer has received numerous honors, including election to the Society for Pediatric Research, multiple NIH Director’s Awards, and several teaching awards. Dr. Bremer is a board-certified internist, pediatrician, and pediatric endocrinologist. His areas of expertise include endocrine disorders, obesity, developmental origins of health and disease, and the role of nutrition in health throughout the life cycle. He received his B.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University; his M.A.S. in clinical research from the University of California, Davis; and his Ph.D. in pharmacology and his M.D. from Boston University. He completed his internal medicine and pediatric residencies at Baylor College of Medicine and his pediatric endocrinology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Alexandra E. Cowan-Pyle, Ph.D., is a research faculty member in the College of Medicine’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at Florida State University. Her work focuses on nutritional status assessment and how dietary exposures differentially impact population subgroups to provide more specific nutrition guidance for health promotion and chronic disease prevention. As a nutritional epidemiologist, her research is predominantly focused on assessing micronutrient exposures in relation to human health across the lifespan, improving quantitative methods of dietary assessment to optimize human health, and investigating dietary supplements. Dr. Cowan-Pyle is a member of the American Society of Nutrition and serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in nutrition sciences from Purdue University and completed an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics in the Division of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture at Texas A&M University. 

Jaime Gahche, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a Nutritional Epidemiologist and Director of the Population Studies Program in the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). Her work focuses on assessing the use of dietary supplements in the United States and investigating the role of dietary supplements in disease prevention and health promotion, using data from health surveys and epidemiologic studies. Prior to joining ODS in 2017, Dr. Gahche worked as a Nutritional Epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics in the Division of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). From 2005 to 2016, she directed the effort to collect and process dietary supplement data collected in NHANES. Throughout those years, Dr. Gahche also worked closely with colleagues at ODS to characterize dietary supplement usage in the U.S. population. She received her B.S. in nutritional sciences from Cornell University, her M.P.H. from The George Washington University, and her Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Michael K. Georgieff, M.D., is the Martin Lenz Harrison Land Grant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. He also is the Executive Vice Chair of Pediatrics and the Founder and co-Director of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain at the University. He is an internationally recognized expert on the effects of nutrition on the developing brain, specifically the effects of iron status on learning and memory processing. His career in this area has spanned 40 years and includes investigations of brain function in humans and preclinical models. Dr. Georgieff has conducted multiple studies on the effect of fetal and neonatal iron deficiency and neonatal anemia on developing brain regions and behavior. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1992; has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers; and has served as a consultant for UNICEF, the India Ministry of Health, and NIH. He received his M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine. 

Elizabeth J. Johnson, Ph.D., FASN, FACN, FICS, is a nutritional biochemist with a faculty appointment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. With  more than 35 years of experience, she specializes in nutrition and healthy aging, focusing on plant bioactives and their impact on visual and cognitive functions across the lifespan. Her research has helped advance understanding of how dietary carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, support brain and eye health. Dr. Johnson is actively involved in several professional organizations, including the American Society of Nutrition, the American College of Nutrition, the Brain and Ocular Health Society, the Carotenoid Research Interactive Group, and the International Carotenoid Society. She has contributed extensively to her field with more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, review articles, and book chapter publications. She received her Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her postdoctoral research at the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Center on Aging at Tufts University. 

James L. Mills, M.D., M.S., is a Scientist Emeritus at the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). He spent 43 years in the NIH intramural research program at NICHD before converting from Senior Investigator to Scientist Emeritus. His research areas are pregnancy and pediatric problems, and he has worked extensively on folate and neural tube defects. His work also includes effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, possible teratogenic exposures, diabetes in pregnancy, and the relationship between maternal iodine concentrations and pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Mills is a long-time member of the American Pediatric Society and the American Epidemiological Society. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, many of which were published in high-impact medical journals. He received his M.D. from New York Medical College and his M.S. in epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He received his pediatric training at New York-Cornell and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia-University of Pennsylvania and his subspecialty training in pediatric endocrinology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Susan H. Mitmesser, Ph.D., is the Chief Science Officer at Pharmavite, which is a pioneer in the health and wellness industry that’s been earning the trust of consumers, healthcare professionals, and retailers for more than 50 years through its high-quality, science-backed vitamin and supplement solutions. She provides scientific leadership to advance innovation and new product development strategies, while ensuring the scientific integrity of all products made under its brand portfolio. Dr. Mitmesser holds two adjunct professor appointments in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Connecticut and in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She is an accomplished scientific expert with more than 20 years of extensive experience in research and nutritional biochemistry across various industries and sectors, including food, dietary supplements, academia, and clinical settings. She has a passion for nutrition and wellness and leverages her ability to communicate scientific findings to consumers and the marketplace. Dr. Mitmesser serves on the Editorial Board of four peer-reviewed journals and is well published herself, contributing to more than 50 publications and book chapters relating to nutrition in adult and pediatric populations. She received her Ph.D. in nutrition biochemistry from the University of Nebraska and her master's degree in dietetics and clinical nutrition from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 

Kimberly O’Brien, Ph.D., is a Professor of Human Nutrition at Cornell University. Her research has centered on studies designed to better understand mineral metabolism and bone health in infants, children, and pregnant and lactating women in both developed and developing countries. Her research focuses on iron, calcium, and vitamin D physiology across gestation with a focus on determinants of nutrient utilization and partitioning between the mother and fetus. Transfer of nutrients is also addressed at the cellular level by assessing placental mineral transporters in relation to maternal and neonatal status. Her current research is focused on identifying genetic differences in iron and vitamin D absorption, the impact of iron on the gut microbiome, and investigating vitamin D kinetics during pregnancy. Dr. O’Brien’s mass spectrometry laboratory includes instrumentation for high-sensitivity mineral stable isotope analysis to facilitate studies of mineral dynamics. She received her B.S. in biology from the University of New Hampshire and her Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Her professional training included fellowships with the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Laboratory of Theoretical and Physical Biology/Section for Metabolic Analysis and Mass Spectrometry and the Children’s Nutrition Research Center in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.

Elizabeth N. Pearce, M.D., M.Sc., is a Professor of Medicine and the Endocrine Fellowship Program Director in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition at Boston University School of Medicine. She serves as the Regional Coordinator for North America for the Iodine Global Network. She is a deputy editor at the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and has served in multiple additional editorial roles, including as an associate editor for Endocrine Practice, Clinical Thyroidology, and Thyroid. She also currently serves on a World Health Organization guideline advisory panel related to assessment of iodine nutrition. She was the 2018–2019 President of the American Thyroid Association. Dr. Pearce co-chaired the 2017 American Thyroid Association’s Thyroid in Pregnancy Guidelines Task Force and is a member of the current task force for revising that guideline. Her research interests include the sufficiency of dietary iodine in the United States, thyroid function in pregnancy, the thyroid effects of environmental disruptors, and the cardiovascular effects of subclinical thyroid dysfunction. She was the 2011 recipient of the American Thyroid Association’s Van Meter Award for outstanding contributions to research on the thyroid gland and the 2018 Women in Thyroidology Woman of the Year. She received her undergraduate degree and M.D. from Harvard Medical School and her M.Sc. in epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and her fellowship in endocrinology at Boston University.

Katherine Sauder, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Implementation Science and Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She studies how nutrition and other modifiable factors contribute to chronic disease in women and children. She uses observational and intervention methods to identify and test health behavior prevention strategies with potential for widespread implementation. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Association. Her work spans the intergenerational cycle, including pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and child-bearing years. Dr. Sauder partners with fellow researchers, staff members, clinical providers, and community representatives to identify health-related needs in under-resourced communities. Their shared vision is to break the cycle of intergenerational obesity and diabetes through improved nutrition and health behaviors during pivotal life stages. Dr. Sauder is currently evaluating sustainable programs to improve nutrition and health behaviors in American Indian children, rural-dwelling children, under-resourced pregnant women, and under-resourced women of child-bearing age. Previously she was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in biobehavioral health from Penn State University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric nutrition at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health and a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Florida State University. As an international leader in biochemistry, agriculture, and nutrition, his research focuses on the biochemical, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms that underlie the relationships between nutrition, food fortification, and human pathologies such as developmental anomalies, neuropathies, and cancer. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also former President of the American Society for Nutrition and has served two terms on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. Dr. Stover has more than 25 years of academic leadership experience, serving as founding Director of the Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture at the Texas A&M University System, Vice Chancellor and Dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife, Director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the Medical College of Virginia and completed his postdoctoral studies in nutritional sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Edwina Wambogo, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) in January 2023 as a Nutritional Epidemiologist in the ODS Population Studies Program. Her work focuses on dietary assessment, assessing dietary patterns, child nutrition, and nutrition in aging, using data from health surveys and epidemiologic studies. Prior to joining ODS, Dr. Wambogo worked as a Nutritional Epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics in the Division of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). She supported external researchers using NHANES data through the revision of the NHANES Tutorials and supported the creation of the NHANES Data Visualization tool. While at CDC, she worked closely with colleagues at NIH to characterize dietary intake and dietary behaviors of the U.S. population. She received her M.S. in nutrition and dietetics from Kenyatta University and her M.P.H. in community health education and her Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a registered dietitian. 

Andrea Wong, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), where her responsibilities include responding to emerging regulatory issues and advocating for science-based nutrition policy. She provides scientific expertise in evaluating research relevant to the benefits and safety of ingredients and dietary supplements. She also leads proactive self-regulatory initiatives, including the development of best practices for industry on product labeling and formulation. Dr. Wong has held several volunteer leadership positions in professional organizations, including the Institute of Food Technologists Washington, D.C. Section and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management. Prior to joining CRN in 2013, she was a senior scientific and regulatory consultant for the firm Intertek. She received her B.Sc. in life sciences from Queen’s University and her Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Toronto. 

Steven Zeisel, Ph.D., is the Kenan Distinguished University Professor of Nutrition and Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously he was Director of the University of North Carolina Nutrition Research Institute (a unit focused on developing the area of precision nutrition) from 2008 to 2022 and the Director of the University of North Carolina Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (one of 12 such centers of excellence funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health) from 1995 to 2015. Earlier he was on the faculty at Boston University School of Medicine, where he rose from assistant to full Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics, and was the Chair of the Department of Nutrition from 1990 to 2005 and the Associate Dean for Research of the School of Public Health until 2007. Dr. Zeisel is a scientist and educator in the field of nutrition with more than 40 years of innovation and leadership in his discipline. He is best known for discovering that people require the nutrient choline, which is important for fetal development and liver and muscle function. This discovery led to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the European Union Food Safety Authority, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) setting recommended dietary intakes for choline. FDA also required all manufacturers of infant formulas to increase the amount of choline they add. Dr. Zeisel was the first to find that choline is needed by the stem cells that become the nerves in the brain and that low maternal intake of choline led to abnormal brain development in the baby. The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have since issued recommendations that pregnant mothers eat diets that are adequate in choline.  Dr. Zeisel and his research team also discovered that people have common genetic differences that can greatly increase the amount of choline they need. He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has written many chapters in nutrition and medicine textbooks. He was President of the American Institute of Nutrition (now the American Society of Nutrition, the premier academic research society in this discipline) from 2002 to 2003. He was the editor of Frontiers in Nutrigenomics, is on the editorial board of the FASEB Journal, and was the founding editor of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. He received his B.S. in general biology and his Ph.D. in nutrition from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at Yale.