Lisa Tussing-Humphreys
ChicagoCHEC Role: Planning and Evaluation Core Co-Leader
Organization: University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Lisa Tussing-Humphreys is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics of the Department of Medicine in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She is nutrition scientist and licensed registered dietitian and has been leading translational research studies and dietary/lifestyle intervention trials for over 8 years. The majority of her dietary/lifestyle intervention research has focused on reducing chronic disease health disparities in racial/ethnic minorities residing in both rural and urban settings.Dr. Tussing-Humphreys also has a personal interest in studying how obesity-related changes to systemic iron metabolism affects risk for colorectal cancer. Across all of her research, she applies epidemiologic, clinical, social, behavioral and molecular tools and assessments to understand complex diet/disease relationships.Her previous studies have laid the groundwork for her current American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute R01 funded studies examining the impact of diet on colonic health and colon cancer risk. She oversees the collection of the individual-level structural violence related measures, analysis of the neuroendocrine and immune markers in her lab, and supervises the timely completion of lab work conducted by a multidisciplinary team of co-investigators and research core staff.As Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago Cancer Centers Diet and Behavior Shared Resource, she works closely with her Co-PI, Grippo, PhD, to determine the appropriate dietary composition of the diets for the animal study. Dr. Tussing-Humphreys serves as the administrative contact for the study and takes responsibility for the annual reports to NIH and communication with grants and contracts and UIC and UIUC.Her research is focused on environmental influences, lifestyle/dietary behaviors, gut microbial community and colorectal health.