Understanding Nutrition, 3rd Edition |

Gail Hammond is an instructor in Food, Nutrition & Health and a PhD candidate in Human Nutrition. She has used problem-based learning and debate in the courses that she teaches. Her expertise is focused on middle-aged women, food choice, and bone health. Gail is also currently participating in Carl Wieman’s Active Learning initiatives at UBC.

​Colleen O’Connor grew up in Northern Ontario and earned her BSc, MSc and PhD from Brescia University College, University of Manitoba and University of Guelph, respectively. She has been a Registered Dietitian since 2003 and has worked in multiple clinical practice areas. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Brescia University College, an affiliate of Western University, where her main teaching focus is clinical nutrition. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University and an Associate Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario. She has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented her research at numerous conferences nationally and internationally. Recent areas of research include the influence of smartphone applications on dietary behaviours in youth, the usefulness of nutrigenomics in clinical practice, and the role of fermented foods and beverages in human health. She has been a longstanding member of the College of Dietitians of Ontario, Die-titians of Canada and the Canadian Nutrition Society.​

Leonard A. Piché, Ph.D., R.D., nutritional scientist, received his Ph.D. in human nutrition from the University of Guelph in 1987 and has been a Registered Dietitian (RD) since 1997. He is Professor Emeritus in the Division of Foods and Nutritional Sciences, Brescia University College, at Western University, responsible for developing and teaching basic and advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in nutrition. He was also an adjunct Full Professor in the School of Kinesiology, Western University. He is a member of seven professional national organizations, including the Canadian Nutrition Society and the Sports Nutrition Network of the Dietitians of Canada. Dr. Piché was a contributor for two recent editions of Mosby’s Medical Dictionary and a consultant for a Canadian edition of a high school food and nutrition text. His publications as a coauthor include two publications on Canada’s Food Guide, a number of Canadian Student Information (CSI) documents to accompany entry-level university nutrition texts, and an advanced-level nutrition text. He has been involved in and coauthored peer-reviewed articles on experiments in humans looking at the relationship between diet and heart disease risk (e.g., orange juice and good cholesterol and the effects of a high-protein diet on risk factors for cardiovascular disease). Dr. Piché has provided feedback to Health Canada on more than five dozen occasions regarding food- and nutrition-related issues (e.g., nutrition labelling, the Food Guide, the discretionary addition of vitamins and minerals to foods, and updating the Canadian Nutrient File). He was an advisor on three of Dietitians of Canada’s online courses for health-care professionals (Sport Supplements, Vitamins and Minerals, and Herbal Supplements). He has supervised the nutrient analysis of more than a dozen recipe books targeted at different segments of the general public.

Ellie Whitney, PhD grew up in New York City and received her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English and biology at Radcliffe/Harvard University and Washington Universities, respectively. She has taught at both Florida State University and Florida A&M University, has written newspaper columns on environmental matters for the Tallahassee Democrat, and has authored almost a dozen college textbooks on nutrition, health, and related topics, many of which have been revised multiple times over the years. In addition to teaching and writing, she has spent the past three-plus decades exploring outdoor Florida and studying its ecology. Her latest book is Priceless Florida: The Natural Ecosystems (Pineapple Press, 2004).

Sharon Rady Rolfes received her MS in nutrition and food science from Florida State University. She is a founding member of Nutrition and Health Associates, an information resource center that maintains a research database on more than 1,000 nutrition-related topics. She has taught at Florida State University and coauthored several college nutrition textbooks, including UNDERSTANDING NUTRITION, and UNDERSTANDING NORMAL AND CLINICAL NUTRITION. In addition to writing, she serves as a consultant for various educational projects. Her volunteer work includes delivering food to the hungry and homeless in her community. She maintains her registration as a dietitian nutritionist and her membership in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.