SAN ANTONIO (Dec. 19, 2008) — Carmen Román-Shriver, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., director of the Nutrition and Dietetics Program being developed at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, received the Distinguished Trinko Award presented by a member interest group of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), Latinos and Hispanics in Dietetics and Nutrition (LAHIDAN).
An associate professor in the School of Health Professions, Dr. Román-Shriver received the award Oct. 26 at the ADA Food & Nutrition Conference Expo in Chicago. LAHIDAN is the ADA’s first member interest group. These groups provide an opportunity for dietetics professionals with common interests, issues and backgrounds to network. LAHIDAN’s purpose is to “support member needs while fostering the development and improvement of food, nutrition and health care for Latinos and their families in the United States and related territories with outreach to Hispanic and Latino international members,” Dr. Roman-Shriver said.
“It’s is a great honor to receive this award,” she said. “As the first recipient of this award, I am deeply touched by the thoughtfulness of my colleagues at LAHIDAN. It is particularly meaningful because it honors a distinguished staff member of the ADA who was champion for diversity within the organization.” The award is named in memory of Genny Trinko, a former ADA vice president of Human Resources, who is respected also for instilling high professional standards in the ADA’s workforce.
The Health Science Center recruited Dr. Román-Shriver and her husband, Brent Shriver, Ph.D., an associate professor and a nutritional biochemist, to develop a dietetics and nutrition program through the university’s Laredo Campus Extension, because obesity and related health problems are prevalent along the Texas-Mexico border. Once approved and accredited, the program is expected to be offered through the San Antonio campus and the Laredo Campus extension.
Dr. Román-Shriver earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Puerto Rico, her master’s from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in Denton and her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where she also completed post-doctoral training.
In addition to faculty positions as TWU and Texas Christian University, Dr. Román-Shriver was an associate professor at Texas Tech University for 10 years, where she served as director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and the Dietetic Internship Program. In addition to her active involvement in ADA committees since 1991, she served on the Statewide Obesity Taskforce that produced the Strategic Plan for the Prevention of Obesity in Texas in 2003. The strategic plan was the basis for the statewide “Building Healthy Families” program, launched in 2004 to tackle the growing obesity program in Texas.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 23,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.