
Anita Nucci, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., has been appointed Department of Nutrition chair by Dr. Huanbiao Mo, dean of the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions. Nucci replaces Mo, who was recently named dean of the college. Nucci served as interim chair for the past 16 months. She previously served as interim department chair from 2011 to 2013.
Nucci is an associate professor and the graduate program director of nutrition. Her research centers on Type 1 diabetes in children and pediatric intestinal failure. Part of the international TRIGR (Trial to Reduce IDDM in the Genetically at Risk) Study Group, Nucci received research funding from the National Institutes of Health over eight years to support her work with the TRIGR group. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals on her research and has made several presentations on the TRIGR group’s findings as well.
A member of the Georgia Board of Examiners of Licensed Dietitians since 2013, Nucci is part of the seven-member team responsible for regulating the activities of professional dietitians and protecting the safety and welfare of the public. She is the former manager of clinical nutrition and the intestinal care and rehabilitation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and has been the course director for the biennial International Pediatric Intestinal Failure and Rehabilitation Symposium since 1996. She is the incoming chair of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Pediatric Intestinal Failure Section. Nucci received the Outstanding Researcher Award from the Georgia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2012.
Nucci completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology and an M.P.H. at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Pennsylvania State University and completed a dietetic internship at The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.