May May Leung, PhD, RDN, has been named Research Director, of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center. Dr. Leung will be overseeing the Center’s research initiatives, including NY Food 20/20, research on the impact of COVID-19 on NYC’s food system, Food Chatter, listening to the language of food on social media in marginalized communities, and Hyperlocal Health, a project of connecting food resources to individual community members. Dr. Leung is a distinguished and skilled scientist.
May May Leung, PhD, RDN is an associate professor of Nutrition at the Hunter College School of Urban Public Health. Her research expertise includes the development and evaluation of innovative health communication and community-based interventions to promote health and reduce the risk of diet-related chronic diseases in diverse populations. She also uses community-based participatory research methods, such as photovoice, to engage and empower youth residing in underserved communities. May May’s research projects have led to partnerships with various community-based organizations in New York City, such as Children’s Aid and New York Cares. In addition, she focuses on the translation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions and policies to reduce the risk of chronic diseases with the goal of enhancing the public health impact of initiatives. May May’s work extends internationally as she has worked with the World Health Organization, Shanghai Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. She completed her doctoral degree in Public Health Nutrition at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health (UNC). She earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and her MS in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Prior to her time at UNC, May May was an adjunct faculty member and project manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing.
