Lorraine Cordeiro

Lorraine Cordeiro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she conducts community-engaged research on food security, high-risk health behaviors, and hunger among adolescents and women across diverse cultural contexts including refugee and immigrant communities in Lowell, Massachusetts, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.

Her research focuses on validating food security assessment tools for vulnerable populations and pioneering the integration of adolescence into the Maternal and Child Health Life Course Model, addressing critical gaps in current discourse that predominantly emphasizes pre- and post-natal periods. She examines how food insecurity mediates racial discrimination's health impacts, investigates vitamin A interventions, and documents traditional postpartum practices among Cambodian women.

Dr. Cordeiro's publication trends reveal consistent focus on nutrition security, maternal-child health disparities, and culturally specific dietary practices, with increasing emphasis on community-based participatory research methodologies and life-course approaches to adolescent health.

Her distinguished recognition includes:

• Tufts University Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service
• Albert Schweitzer Fellowship
• UMass Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award
• Center for Research on Families Faculty Scholar
• UMass Civic Engagement and Service Learning Faculty Fellow

She actively mentors students through experiential learning initiatives in health services workforce development and multi-phase community research projects with Cambodian immigrant communities, leveraging affiliations with the Center for Research on Families to secure service-learning grants focused on community nutrition equity.

Dr. Cordeiro maintains active research partnerships with the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment and collaborates with community organizations in Lowell, Massachusetts, and international networks in Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Cambodia to advance food security interventions.