Isabel Madzorera is an assistant professor of public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, in the division of Community Health Sciences. Isabel is a nutrition epidemiologist interested in the intersection of food systems, nutrition, and sustainable diets in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Her research program uses advanced nutrition epidemiologic methods to assess diet quality as a key modifiable risk factor for poor maternal and child health outcomes in LMICs, and to identify the role of food systems and other contributing factors to the triple burden of malnutrition in these contexts.
Isabel has led global health research evaluating food systems and diet quality and their influence on maternal and child health. Her previous research has evaluated the role of maternal diet quality during pregnancy and its impact on the risks of low birth weight, small for gestational age, and preterm births. She has also investigated the role of women’s empowerment in agricultural households, and the impact of distance to food markets and COVID-19 on food prices and diets.
She is also researching the role of diet in the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa. Isabel has extensive field-based experience in sub-Saharan Africa. She has spent considerable time working in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique and has also conducted research in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Isabel received her doctoral training in nutritional epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
