Faculty

Andrew Hall

Andrew G. Hall, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor
Dr. Hall's research focuses on the assessment of zinc nutritional status and its relationship to health through the life course. Dr. Hall’s interests include the development of novel biomarkers of zinc-dependent functions, and the application of zinc tracer methodologies towards the determination of dietary zinc absorption and cellular utilization.
Eleonora Headshot

Eleonora Cremonini, Ph.D.

  • Associate Researcher
Dr. Cremonini's research focus on the effect of polyphenols consumption, especially epicatechin and anthocyanins, on metabolic-associated disorders. She uses cell and animals models and also clinical trials to investiagate the beneficial effects of these bioactives at the cellular level of the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., permeability, inflammation, and microbiota), which secondarily can mitigate obesity-associated pathologies, such as diabetes, steatosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
4305 Meyer Hall
Laurie Nommsen Rivers

Laurie Nommsen-Rivers, Ph.D., R.D., I.B.C.L.C.

  • Academic Administrator
  • Adjunct Associate Professor
Dr. Nommsen-Rivers (she/her) is the director of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Master of Advanced Study program and the UC Davis Human Lactation Center. Her program of research aims to strengthen the evidence base for supporting optimal clinical management of lactating parent-infant dyads. Her current work focuses on physiologic factors that influence milk production during lactation.
3150C Meyer Hall
amy nichols

Amy R. Nichols, Ph.D., M.S., R.D.N.

  • Assistant Professor | Assistant Nutritionist in AES
Building on her extensive experience in maternal and child nutrition and dietetics, Dr. Nichols conducts interdisciplinary women’s health research in two primary areas at the intersection of dietetics, reproductive epidemiology, and cardiometabolic health. First, she investigates the nutritional, biological, and social aspects of the preconception period through the first 1000 days with a translational emphasis on modifiable determinants that affect the lifecourse. Second, leveraging longitudinal data, Dr. Nichols examines sex as a biological variable and the extent to which reproductive risk factors (e.g., infertility, pregnancy loss, reproductive senescence) are associated with body composition, cardiometabolic health, and the origins of disease among female individuals in midlife.
3243 Meyer Hall
Michelle La Merrill

Michele La Merrill

  • Associate Professor
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Toxicology
Dr. Michele La Merrill studies the developmental basis of environmental disease. Her group is particularly interested in understanding susceptibilities to disease that may result from environmental insults during development, from poor diet and ensuing metabolic diseases, and from genetic and epigenetic predispositions.
4245 Meyer Hall
Guodong Zhang

Guodong Zhang

  • Assistant Professor
  • Assistant Nutritionist in AES
Dr. Zhang's research seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanisms for the health effects of dietary and/or environmental compounds, in order to better understand their metabolic individualities, address inter-individual susceptibilities, and clarify their health effects.
3209 Meyer Hall | Labs: 3407 Meyer Hall
Ryan Snodgrass

Ryan G Snodgrass, Ph.D.

  • Research Molecular Biologist, USDA ARS WHNRC
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Snodgrass's research is focused on understanding how diet and nutritional and metabolic status shape innate immune function. Active research areas include: 1) investigating how metabolic status influences innate immune cell frequencies and phenotypes; 2) investigating the impact of diet and stress on cardiovascular risk factors and innate immune cell phenotypes; 3) investigating how microbiota-derived metabolites, which can be influenced by our diet, contribute to innate immune cell function.
Cassandra Nguyen

Cassandra J. Nguyen, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension
Dr. Nguyen's long-term goal is to bridge the gap between "what we know" and "what we do" about food insecurity in the U.S. Her research broadly aligns with one of three areas: 1) supporting the implementation, evaluation, and effectiveness of Extension and nutrition education programming; 2) revitalizing local food systems to increase diet quality and wellbeing among Native communities and families; and 3) integrating food insecurity screening into healthcare services to better address chronic diseases.
3149 Meyer Hall
Bess Caswell

Bess Caswell , Ph.D

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor, USDA ARS WHNRC
Dr. Caswell's research interests are in dietary assessment and analysis methods and food-based nutrition interventions. Her work incorporates nutritional epidemiology, community-based nutrition research and controlled dietary studies conducted at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center.
Baback Roshanravan

Baback (Bob) Roshanravan, M.D., M.S.P.H., M.S.

Dr. Roshanravan is is focused on patient-oriented research studying the links between altered metabolism in chronic kidney disease with muscle function, physical functioning, and frailty. His current research employs metabolic imaging and live tissue analysis of mitochondrial biochemistry to assess the impact of lifestyle and pharmacologic therapies on improving muscle performance, metabolism and physical function in vulnerable persons with chronic kidney disease. He is currently funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to investigate the impact of home-based exercise and treatment of metabolic acidosis on muscle metabolism and physical endurance among persons with CKD. As an investigator in the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory he leads an interdisciplinary team of investigators across UC Davis, California State University Sacramento, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, 4860 Y St., Sacramento, Nephrology, Suite 0200
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