Scientific American Nutrition for a Changing World: Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Jamie Pope, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND, is Adjoint Assistant Professor in Nutritional Sciences in the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She has been with Vanderbilt University since 1986, working in the areas of obesity research, weight management, health promotion, and heartdisease prevention and—for over 20 years—teaching introductory nutrition courses. Jamie’s popular course brought together undergraduate students from a wide range of majors to learn about the science of nutrition and its application to their personal and future professional lives. She was the recipient of the Faculty Innovation in Teaching Award in 2013. 

Beyond the classroom,Jamie adapted portions of her Vanderbilt courses to produce an open online course on the Coursera learning platform, which attracted more than 175,000 students from all over the world. Outcomes and application of this online course to dietetic practice and nutrition education were published in the Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics and presented at theAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Exhibition and Conference. Based on her professional and scholarly contributions, she earned the status of Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2017. Jamie was honored with the Dietetic Educator Excellence award by her peers in 2021. She serves on the executive leadership committee for Nutrition Educators of Health Professionals dietetic practice group. Jamie has also served as corporate nutrition consultant, media representative, and scientific advisor for several national companies and corporations. Earlier in her career, Jamie coauthored several popular press books, including The T-Factor Fat Gram Counter, which remained for more than three yearson the New York Times best-sellers list. She has authored or contributed to numerous other scientific and lay press publications. Jamie cherishes time with her family and friends and loves listening to historical fiction novels while she takes long walks with her dogs.

Steven Nizielski, MS, PhD, earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in Wildlife Biology and assisted in research projects involving Siberian tigers and gray wolves before entering graduate school. He earned his Master’s and Doctoratedegrees at the University of Minnesota in nutrition, with an emphasis in biochemistry. He was an Associate Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, for 19 years before retiring in 2020.

In his more than 25 years of teaching he has taught courses in introductory, clinical, life cycle, sports nutrition, and exercise physiology, as well as advanced metabolism. Past research activities include investigating brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and changes in adipose tissue gene expression in response to aging and exercise, and evaluating the campus food environment. Steve is a member of the American Society for Nutrition and of the American Physiological Society. He is an avid cyclist and enjoys cross-country skiing, hiking, camping, and cooking.