(Posted 7-26-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Laurie Gengenbach 336-334-5371

NEW DEAN APPOINTED FOR UNCG SCHOOL OF HUMAN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

GREENSBORO - Dr. Laura A. Sims has been named dean of The School of Human Environmental Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Dr. Laura A. Sims

Her appointment, effective Aug. 1, was announced by UNCG Provost A. Edward Uprichard.
"I am very excited about Laura Sims' appointment as Dean of the School of Human Environmental Sciences," he said. "She is a highly respected scholar who has demonstrated superb administrative and leadership skills in previous academic leadership positions. I have complete confidence in her abilities to work with faculty, staff, students and community partners to move the School of Human Environmental Sciences forward in significant ways. Indeed, we are very fortunate to have attracted her to the UNCG community."

Sims, a professor of human nutrition and former dean of the College of Human Ecology at the University of Maryland, College Park, will succeed Dr. Helen A. Shaw, who retired in July after 11 years of service.

As dean of The School of Human Environmental Sciences, Sims will oversee 51 faculty who teach approximately 1,000 students in five academic departments: housing and interior design; human development and family studies; nutrition and foodservice systems; social work, and textiles products design and marketing.

Sims holds a Ph.D. in nutrition from Michigan State University, and is the author of "The Politics of Fat: Food and Nutrition Policy in America," published in 1998, in addition to three other books and more than 60 scholarly publications.
Her major scholarly and research interests focus on the study of domestic nutrition policy, effectiveness of public nutrition information strategies, psychosocial influences on food consumption behavior, and issues dealing with community nutrition program delivery and evaluation.

Sims served for two years as administrator of the Human Nutrition Information Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and for ten years on the faculty of Penn State University, where she was professor of nutrition in public health.

She has received a number of honors and awards, including being named to the founding class of W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellows and a 1992 Kellogg Leadership Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Resources for the Future. She served as president of the Society for Nutrition Education for the 1997-98 terms and as editor for the "Journal of Nutrition Education" from 1985-1988, and again as interim editor in 1995-96.

A registered dietitian, Sims served as chair of the Council on Research for the American Dietetic Association from 1987-1990. Through the position, she served on the board of directors for the American Dietetic Association and its foundation.

She was named Outstanding Alumna of 1983 by the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University and was named one of that university's College of Human Ecology's Centennial Award winners in 1996. From 1990 to 1998, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Christian Children's Fund Inc. and from 1993 to 1996 was an appointed member of the Montgomery County (MD) Commission on Health.

Sims has a record of outstanding service to national advisory boards and task forces, including the Institute of Medicine/Food and Nutrition Board's 1989-90 Committee on "Nutrition Components of Food Labeling" and the 1991 Committee on "State Food Labeling." She has been a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Board of Scientific Counselors and a member of a number of National Institutes of Health review panels, and as a consultant to USDA's assessment of the nutrition education component of the WIC program.

She has been principal investigator for several research projects, including the "National Assessment of Extension's Food and Nutrition Program," and served as a principal investigator for the National Science Foundation project, "Implementing Consumer Right-to-Know Provisions," at the University of Maryland.

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