Meizi He

Meizi He, Ph.D., is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCAP). Her work focuses on community nutrition and health promotion, particularly in Hispanic communities and among older adults.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Nutrition and Health, University of Hong Kong
• M.Sc. in Human Nutrition and Health, Sun Yet-sen University of Medical Sciences
• M.D., Sun Yet-sen University of Medical Sciences

Dr. He's research centers on community nutrition and health promotion with emphasis on faith-based interventions for chronic disease prevention. She developed the 'Building a Healthy Temple' program addressing diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in Hispanic churches. Her work explores nutrition in older adults, food security, and technology's role in health education, often using community-based participatory methods.

Analysis of her 2022-2024 publications reveals consistent focus on Hispanic health disparities through faith-based settings. Key trends include faith-based vs. faith-placed diabetes management approaches, binational childhood obesity prevention (US/Mexico), and pandemic impacts on food security/technology use in older adults. Her work predominantly employs cluster randomized trials in community settings.

Grants and Projects:

• Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19 (2021-2023, $1.68M)
• A Technological Intervention to Improve Nutrition among Older Adult Congregate Meal Participants during COVID-19 (2021-2024, $1.18M)
• Building a Healthy Temple: A Faith-Based Hypertension Prevention and Management Program (2020-2021, $78,000)
• Expansion of the Building A Healthy Temple Cancer Prevention Program (2019-2022, $2.0M)
• REACH Healthy Neighborhoods Project Evaluation (2018-2023, $79,200)
• Building a Healthy Temple (2018-2019, $75,000)
• CONACYT subaward with Universidad Autonoma De Nuevo Leon (2015-2017, $17,543)
• NUTRITIONIST TODAY AND TOMORROW (2010-2013, $290,000)

Dr. He holds a patent for the 'Building a Healthy Temple' intervention and led clinical trials on diabetes management and soy in obesity management. She leads the 'Building a Healthy Temple' program implemented in South Texas and Rio Grande Valley Hispanic churches, collaborating with community partners to address health disparities through culturally tailored approaches.