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Research Nutritionist
Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, ARS, USDA
Dr. O’Connor is a new Research Nutritionist in the Food Components and Health Lab at BHNRC. Her research covers a range of topics under the umbrella of dietary patterns and chronic disease, with emphasis on how certain foods (e.g., red meat and processed foods) behave both metabolically and methodologically within the context of various dietary patterns for US populations. She currently serves as the chair-elect for the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)’s Climate/Environment, Health, Agriculture, and Improved Nutrition (CHAIN) Research Interest Group; the Awards Chair for ASN’s Early Career Membership Group; a member of the FASEB Early Career Representative Engagement Task Force; and is on the Editorial Board for Frontiers in Nutrition’s Nutrition Methodology Section. Before coming to BHNRC, Dr. O’Connor was a Cancer Prevention Research Fellow at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). She served on the Data Analysis Team for the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans; played an integral role in advancements for NCI’s Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour (ASA24®) Dietary Assessment Tool, including development of the Respondent Nutrition Report, the Sleep Assessment Module, and the Novel Foods Tool; as well as conducted independent research using nationally representative nutrition surveillance data. During her fellowship at NCI, Dr. O’Connor completed an MPH at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistical methods. Prior to NCI, Dr. O’Connor obtained her PhD in Nutrition Science from Purdue University, where her research focused on cardiometabolic health effects of red meat intake via randomized controlled feeding trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Her dual BS in Dietetics and Nutrition, Fitness, and Health are also from Purdue University.