1. Wilna Oldewage-Theron, PhD RD(SA) Nutritional Sciences Community and International Nutrition Personal Information Wilna Oldewage-Theron joined the faculty in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University in December 2014 as Professor of Nutrition where she teaches a graduate class on Issues in Nutrition: Food and Nutrition Security among others. Dr. Oldewage-Theron has fifteen years Community Nutrition research experience in Africa and has mentored over 30 graduate students and 11 post doctorate fellows. Her research interests include the factors contributing to household food insecurity and malnutrition, specifically dietary diversity and micronutrient deficiencies, in resource-poor communities focusing on women, children and the elderly. Dr. Oldewage-Theron has investigated the effect of various interventions, including food fortification, agriculture and horticulture, dietary diversity, supplementation, nutrition education, food product development and implementation, as well as school feeding programs on poverty, food insecurity and nutritional status of the target populations by applying scientific principles. Dr. Oldewage-Theron established a modus operandi in which she identifies the needs of a community through a situational analysis, obtaining community participation and implementing solutions to the identified problems through applied scientific research projects linked to graduate studies, thus applied research based on community needs. She has also been involved in impact studies for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, South Africa), United States Potato Board, World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH, USA), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Nestle. Dr Oldewage-Theron is originally from South Africa (SA). She completed a Bachelors of Science (Dietetics) degree from the University of Pretoria (SA) in 1981. There-after she completed an Honours degree in 1995, Masters of Science (Dietetics) in 1998 and PhD in Dietetics in 2001 from North-West University (SA). She has authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, 3 book chapters, 6 articles as part of conference proceedings and 57 scientific meeting abstracts.

2. Wilna Oldewage-Theron Nutritional Sciences Research Interests: 1. Community and international nutrition - research interests include the factors contributing to household food and nutrition insecurity and malnutrition, especially the double burden of disease, in resource-poor communities focusing on women, the elderly and children. 2. Dietary diversity - the production, processing and consumption of soy and vegetables for human health. Proposed Collaboration: Potential research hypotheses include: 1. Does the implementation of vegetable and soy gardens in low-income communities result in an improved dietary diversity in food and nutrition insecure communities/households or are the commodities sold as income-generation? 2. What are the predictors of dietary diversity among food and nutrition insecure communities/households? 3. What are the predictors of cardiovascular disease among food and nutrition insecure communities/households? 4. Is there an inverse relationship between dietary diversity and cardiovascular disease in food and nutrition insecure adults?