Addressing mental health and suicide in China

Fighting to end homelessness among society’s most vulnerable

Tackling air & water pollution in Alaska

Turning the tide of HIV in Thailand

A pioneer in gun violence research and prevention

Reducing preventable deaths in Togo by removing barriers to care

Improving maternal and child health through perinatal care

A leader in Seattle’s community health center movement

Discovering a passion for worker safety & entrepreneurship

Finding the intersection between public health and policy

Leading the DRC through six disease outbreaks

Lauren Sawyer is a public health nutritionist and Registered Dietitian with interests in chronic disease prevention and management (particularly type 2 diabetes), food sovereignty, and community health interventions. Here is her graduate student profile from 2020.

What excites you about nutrition? I love food. I think we probably all do. It provides comfort and pleasure and can serve to bring community together. It is an integral part of our culture and is something that we engage with — must engage with — every single day. But beyond being necessary to survive, food has the potential to dramatically change our health, for the better or worse.

What influenced you to pursue a degree in nutritional sciences? I have always been interested in nutrition. My undergraduate degree was also focused on nutrition, so I wanted to continue in the same area to deepen my knowledge and to gain more public health insight. Back in Mexico, the focus is almost entirely in individually-focused diets, so I wanted to diverge a bit from that.

What influenced you to pursue a degree in nutritional sciences? Growing up with a large extended Puerto Rican family, food was a way for us to show and give love. It has always been one of my greatest passions and interests and I knew from a young age that it would somehow be involved in what I pursued professionally. I attended culinary school and worked in kitchens in Seattle for about 7 years.