Sandra L. Gomez-Perez, PhD, RD, LDN

Sandra L. Gomez-Perez, PhD, RD, LDN, is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Nutrition, a clinical nutrition researcher and a registered dietitian.  She has specialized training in the areas of cancer, cancer prevention and epidemiology, nutritional epidemiology and nutritional assessment including body composition analysis.  She earned a PhD in Kinesiology, Nutrition and Rehabilitation Sciences (with a nutritional epidemiology, race/ethic disparities, and cancer concentration) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to obtaining her doctorate, she was a project coordinator in nutrition and translational research in minority and underserved populations for 16 years. She was also a pre-doctoral fellow with the NIH R25T Cancer Education and Career Development Program at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at UIC.

Gomez-Perez’s research interests focus on understanding the relationships between race/ethnicity, obesity, body composition, inflammation, insulin resistance and obesity-related cancers (particularly colorectal and breast cancers).  For her dissertation, she used computed tomography (CT) imaging body composition analysis to explore associations between regional fat distribution, serum biomarkers of colorectal cancer risk and race/ethnicity in adults.