Odilia Bermudez, MPH, PhD

Dr. Bermudez is an Assistant Professor at Tufts University Medical School, Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. She also holds secondary appointments as Research Scientist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and as Assistant Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, both at Tufts University. Dr Bermudez holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition (University of Massachusetts), a Master’s in Public Health (University of San Carlos, Guatemala), and advanced training in Food, Nutrition, Biotechnology and Poverty from the United Nations University (Chile and Guatemala). Her expertise includes areas of international public health and nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, nutritional assessment, and poverty and food security. She is fully bilingual in Spanish and English.

Originally from Panama, Central America, Dr Bermudez has worked extensively in Latin America, particularly in Central America, where she has served as short-term consultant for the government of Panama and for regional organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization. Currently, she has research activities with the Guatemalan Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism. In addition, she is a consultant on nutrition evaluation, dietary assessment and food security for a Regional Program on Food Security funded by the European Union, and for the Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama.

Both nationally and internationally, her current research is focused on the health, nutritional and dietary status of population groups and relationships between diet, nutrient intake, health and chronic conditions, particularly obesity, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome of ethnically and culturally diverse population groups. She also researches dietary and nutrition assessment methodologies related to socio-cultural and environmental determinants of food intake and health status of population groups.