Amy Lanou, PhD

Assoc. Professor, Health/Wellness, U. of N. Carolina Asheville

Sr. Nutrit. Scientist, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Amy Lanou, PhD, is Associate Professor, and department chair, of Health and Wellness at the University of North Carolina Asheville.  She currently teaches nutrition, women’s health, food politics and nutrition policy, health communications, and the senior seminar in health promotion, at UNC Asheville.  Her current research interests include:  nutrition for the prevention of chronic disease, how self-efficacy impacts health behaviors, obesity prevention, designing healthy workplace food environments, and nutrition and bone health.

Dr. Lanou publishes regularly on the relationship between vegetarian diets and dairy products and health, and is the author of “Building Bone Vitality” (2009) and “Healthy Eating for Life for Children” (2002).  She also is the lead author of 10 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles dealing with bone health, weight loss, children’s health, health promotion generally, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and is a co-author of 10 others.

Dr. Lanou also serves as Senior Nutrition Scientist for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington DC based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research.  In this capacity, she focuses her research and projects on efforts to help laypersons and health care professionals shift to low-fat vegetarian diets for promotion of long-term wellness.  Dr. Lanou previously served as PCRM’s Nutrition Director, overseeing nutrition education and outreach programs, and advocating for healthier diets.  She received her PhD in Human Nutrition from Cornell University.