by Bill Snyder
Heidi Silver, RDN, MS, PhD, an internationally known registered dietitian and nutrition scientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Nashville Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, is the recipient of the 2020 Excellence in Research Practice Award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
A graduate of Florida International University in Miami, where she earned a master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics and doctoral degree in Human Nutrition, Silver joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2003. She currently is research professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
Practicing at VUMC and the Nashville VA, part of the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Silver has designed and completed several externally funded randomized controlled trials investigating how modulating dietary fat and carbohydrate intake in obese adults may affect body composition, inflammation, insulin resistance and risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
She also has contributed to the development of new imaging protocols to advance the study of body composition.
Silver established and directs the Vanderbilt Diet, Body Composition and Human Metabolism Core. The core provides nutrition and diet assessments and menu development as well as body composition, energy expenditure and cardiometabolic testing for the study protocols of VUMC, VA and outside investigators.
A champion for advancing the role of registered dietitians, Silver has trained more than 500 registered dietitians as well as dozens of medical and graduate students in valid nutrition, diet and body composition methods for clinical research.
“Overall it has been my goal to train other health care professionals and to conduct translational science that would lead to improvements in daily clinical practice and improvements in the health care and the nutrition-related health of individuals, particularly those with obesity related malnutrition,” Silver said.
“This award could not go to a more deserving recipient than Heidi Silver,” said Richard Peek Jr., MD, director of Gastroenterology and Mimi Cobb Wallace Professor of Immunology.
“Her passion and dedication for both research and training places her in rarefied air as a leader in nutrition in this country and beyond,” Peek said. “We are all extremely proud of the program she has built at Vanderbilt and of all her accomplishments.”
Representing more than 100,000 credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The Academy is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy.
