Professor
Texas Tech University
Dr. Wilna Oldewage-Theron PhD RD(SA) is a Professor of Nutrition and the Graduate Advisor in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech. She also has an appointment as a Research Associate in the Centre of Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She has twenty years Community Nutrition research experience in Africa and is a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher in South Africa (SA). Her research interests include the factors contributing to household food insecurity and malnutrition in resource-poor communities where she has investigated the effect of various interventions, such as food fortification, supplementation, nutrition education, food product development and implementation, as well as school feeding programs on food insecurity, dietary diversity and nutritional status of women, children and seniors. Her community research and development program at present is mainly focused on the double burden of poverty and malnutrition among women, children and seniors. During 2016, 2017 and 2018, she was a consultant for WISHH facilitating a USDA Cochran workshop on school feeding programs for delegates from various African and South American countries. She has also been involved in impact studies for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (SA), Joint Aid Management, the United States Potato Board, and the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (USA). She has successfully advised 12 Postdoctoral Fellows, chaired 14 PhD and 27 Masters dissertation and thesis committees respectively, and has published five book chapters, 102 peer-reviewed articles and one scientific letter in scientific journals. She has also presented more than 100 papers at national and international conferences.