Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Donovan received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Nutrition at the University of California at Davis. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, she joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she is currently Professor, Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Diet and Health and Director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative. Her laboratory conducts basic and translational research in pediatric nutrition, focusing on optimizing the microbiome, intestinal and cognitive development of neonates and prevention of childhood obesity. Dr. Donovan has ~ 250 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has garnered ~$45M in extramural research funding. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. She was President of the American Society for Nutrition from 2011-2012 and the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML) from 2018-2020. She served on the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Scientific Advisory Committee.