Anna Maria Siega-Riz ’82, ’93 (PhD)
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, dean and professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is an internationally recognized reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist with expertise in maternal and child nutrition. Her accomplishments span rigorous science, transformative leadership, and sustained public engagement. The bulk of her research examines how nutrition shapes health and disease in women and children, with a focus on the first 1,000 days of life, a pivotal period that influences lifelong health.
Siega-Riz’s leadership in advanced dietary assessment and groundbreaking research on diet quality have transformed the understanding of how nutrition affects a variety of health outcomes. Her research has received millions of dollars of funding, and Siega-Riz’s findings have been disseminated in numerous books and chapters, and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles in top journals. Her scholarship is further amplified by her extraordinary national service, including with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the National Institutes of Health as a member of the NIH Council of Councils; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Advisory Council. As a result of her scholarship and service in the field, this year she was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition, which is the society’s lifetime achievement designation.
Only a few years into Siega-Riz’s tenure as dean, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst received the 2022 Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. Most recently, the Massachusetts Health Council recognized her visionary leadership and high-impact public policy contributions with a 2025 “Beacon for the Common Good” award.
Previously Siega-Riz was professor and associate dean for academic and student affairs at Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
