YSPH Dean's Lecture: "Nutrition and Food Safety – Leveraging Regulatory Authorities and Data to Translate Science Into Public Health Action"

Talk Title: Nutrition and Food Safety – Leveraging Regulatory Authorities and Data to Translate Science into Public Health Action

Speaker: Dr. Susan Mayne, Ph.D.

Dr. Susan Mayne is the Former Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at FDA, which is responsible for the safety and labeling of human foods covering approximately 80% of the U.S. food supply. CFSAN’s responsibilities also include fostering the development of healthier foods and ensuring that consumers have access to accurate and useful information to make healthy food choices. Serving in this position from January 2015 – May 2023, Dr. Mayne led a staff of approximately 1100 employees with a budget of > $400 million. During her tenure, FDA advanced landmark food safety and nutrition policies including the implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Closer to Zero to reduce toxic elements in foods for babies and young children, trans fat reduction, updating the iconic Nutrition Facts label to include added sugars, issuing sodium reduction targets for industry across more than 160 categories of food, and implementing menu labeling so consumers can access calorie and nutrition information when consuming foods away from home.

An internationally recognized public health leader and scientist, Dr. Mayne received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Colorado. She earned a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences, with minors in biochemistry and toxicology, from Cornell University. Prior to joining the FDA, she spent nearly three decades at the Yale School of Public Health, where she held an endowed chair as the C.-E.A. Winslow Professor of Epidemiology. Her career there included two leadership positions: Chair of the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Associate Director of the Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Mayne has conducted extensive research on food, nutrition, and health. She is author/coauthor of nearly 250 scientific publications and her work has been cited more than 17,000 times. She completed two terms on the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences prior to joining the FDA.