DR. RAFAEL PÉREZ-ESCAMILLA is Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health at Yale School of Public Health. He is also Director and PI of the Connecticut NIH EXPORT Center of Excellence for Eliminating Health Disparities among Latinos (CEHDL), and Director and PI of the USDA funded Hispanic Family Nutrition Program. He received his MS in Food Science and his PhD in Nutrition from the University of California at Davis, and is a Nutrition Extension Scientist for the State of Connecticut. His public health nutrition, food security, and health disparities research work has taken him all over the world. He has been a senior advisor to community nutrition programs as well as household food security measurement projects funded by USDA, USAID, PAHO, UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, The World Bank and the Governments of Mexico and Brazil. Dr. Pérez-Escamilla was recently appointed to the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines Committee, and to the USDA/DHHS 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. He also serves in the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Cancer Partnership Coalition. Dr. Pérez-Escamilla has been a major advisor to 30 masters and doctoral students from all over the world and has been the research thesis mentor of five undergraduate honors students. He has published 95 research articles and over 200 conference abstracts, book chapters, and technical reports. Dr. Pérez-Escamilla is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar who has received numerous professional recognitions and awards as a result of his major contributions to his field of work.