About Us: Research and Program Staff

Gail G. Harrison, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Professor, UCLA School of Public Health

Gail G. Harrison, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. She also serves as Associate Director of the Program for Healthy and At-Risk Populations in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research focuses on determinants, measurement, and functional consequences of nutrition, malnutrition, and food security, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Prior to coming to UCLA in 1992, Harrison was on the faculty of the College of Medicine of the University of Arizona, where she was the founding Director of the Program in International Health and Professor of Family and Community Medicine. She has worked extensively in the area of dietary and nutritional assessment of diverse populations. She has been a member of the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine and several FNB committees, including the Committee on International Nutrition, the Committee to Review the Risk Criteria for the WIC Program, and the Committee on Implications of Dioxin in the Food Supply, and the Committee to Revise the WIC Food Packages. She has consulted with the World Health Organization and UNICEF and has worked in Egypt, the Sudan, Iran, Indonesia, and Lesotho besides the U.S.

Harrison received her Master’s Degree in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University and her PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Arizona. She is the author of many publications on health and nutritional status of vulnerable groups. She was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in 2003.