Abby Gwen Ershow is an American

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and Human nutrition, nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disci ...

specialized in

iodine Iodine is a chemical element; it has symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists at standard conditions as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

nutrition,

lipid metabolism Lipid metabolism is the synthesis and degradation of lipids in cells, involving the breakdown and storage of fats for energy and the synthesis of structural and functional lipids, such as those involved in the construction of cell membranes. In ani ...

atherogenesis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis, characterized by development of abnormalities called lesions in walls of arteries. This is a chronic inflammatory disease involving many different cell types and is driven by eleva ...

, and cardiovascular nutrition. She was a health science administrator at the

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue t ...

from 1982 to 1989 and a senior nutrition scientist at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

Office of Dietary Supplements from 2014 to 2021.

Life

Ershow completed a B.A. degree in biological sciences (physiology) from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1973. She earned a Sc.D. degree in nutrition, physiology and biostatistics from

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

in 1979. Her dissertation was titled, ''Dietary effects of plasma lipoproteins and lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)''. She is a registered

dietitian A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ...

. Ershow was a staff fellow in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program of the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

from 1982 to 1989, where she worked on projects in China and Japan. From 1989 to 2014, Ershow worked at the

(NHLBI) where she managed an extramural portfolio in lipid metabolism, atherogenesis, and cardiovascular nutrition. At NHLBI, Ershow set up the Dietary Effects on Lipoproteins and Thrombogenic Activity (DELTA) multicenter diet intervention trial and developed the plan for the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program, an interagency food composition project involving USDA, NHLBI and other NIH institutes along with many other federal partners. In 2007, she was elected a fellow of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

and also completed a detail assignment as a visiting analyst at the

Government Accountability Office The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...

. From 2014 to December 2021, she was a senior nutrition scientist in the

(NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) where she led its iodine initiative to strengthen research on and develop data resources for studies of iodine nutrition. Ershow was particularly involved with interagency collaborations with the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production ...

and the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

to develop databases of the iodine content of foods and dietary supplements. She also participated in an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey program data to determine the proportion of U.S. pregnant women advised by their physicians to take supplements containing iodine, which underscored concerns about whether iodine intake is adequate in this population. After retiring in December 2021, Ershow contributes to ODS projects as a consultant. Ershow is a volunteer Maryland master

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

docent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ershow, Abby Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Cornell University alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni National Institutes of Health people American women nutritionists American dietitians 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American medical researchers American women medical researchers American naturalists Women naturalists Fellows of the American Heart Association