Niyati Parekh

Niyati Parekh is an Associate Professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health, with a joint appointment in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She leads research in nutritional epidemiology, focusing on diet-related chronic diseases in at-risk populations, particularly South Asians in the U.S. Her work integrates disease biology, nutritional biochemistry, epidemiology, and biostatistics to understand obesity, metabolic dysregulation, and cancer.

• PhD in Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• MS in Clinical Nutrition, Mumbai University
• BS in Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Mumbai University

Her research program centers on three interconnected themes: identifying dietary patterns in populations, discovering dietary determinants of disease, and developing novel dietary assessment tools. Her work has led to over 75 peer-reviewed publications and has been funded by the American Cancer Society and NIH. She has developed culturally tailored tools such as a food list for South Asian dietary assessment.

Her recent publications highlight the impact of the DASH diet on blood pressure and cardiovascular health among South Asians, the role of family in shaping dietary behaviors, and disparities in ultra-processed food consumption. Her studies often use large cohort data like NHANES and the Framingham Offspring Study, employing advanced statistical methods.

Scientific honors include:

• Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine
• Independent Consultant, UNICEF
• Teaching awards for graduate courses
• Research funding from American Cancer Society and NIH

Prof. Parekh has held significant leadership roles, including Director of Public Health Nutrition (2015–2019), Executive Director of Doctoral Programs at GPH (2017–2021), and currently serves as Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Initiatives, mentoring early-career faculty. She teaches courses such as Global Nutrition, Nutritional Epidemiology, and Global Cancer Epidemiology at NYU campuses and international sites including Mexico, Abu Dhabi, and Florence.

She has contributed to professional societies as Chair of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Group at the American Society for Nutrition. Her work supports evidence-based policy and clinical practice in nutrition and chronic disease prevention.