CFS Guest Speaker: Dr. Mary Lesser on Designing Equitable Food Systems and Food Policy Landscapes

​Curious to learn more about our food policy landscape and how it informs conversations around food access and designing equitable systems? Join us in welcoming Dr. Mary Lesser as this month’s Guest Speaker!

​Mary is currently an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Nutrition and Metabolic Biology Department at the University of California, Berkeley as well as Pediatric Sports Nutrition Dietitian at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals. Along with her 20+ years of experience in the field, Mary also acts as the Vice President of Public Policy at the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

​She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree at UC Davis in Clinical Nutrition with a minor in Human Development and then went on to complete her Master of Science Degree in Nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, MA. While working on her Masters, she completed her Dietetic Internship at Tufts Medical Center and is currently a Registered Dietitian. She then returned to UC Davis to complete her PhD in Nutritional Biology, with an emphasis in Developmental Nutrition and then moved down to the Bay Area to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute

​Dr. Mary Lesser will be providing a dietitians lens on current food policy and its impacts on food access. She will be providing a scope on the overall landscape as well as speaking on how we can build and promote equitable food systems.