Patricia A. Cassano, MPH, Ph.D., is Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Alan D. Mathios Professor, Cornell University. The Division of Nutritional Sciences is in the Colleges of Human Ecology and Agriculture and Life Sciences. Dr. Cassano is also Professor of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Director of Graduate Studies in Epidemiology, Cornell University Graduate School. Dr. Cassano received her MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington.
Dr. Cassano’s major research interests are in the epidemiology and prevention of chronic lung disease focusing on dietary and lifestyle risk and on gene-environment interactions. She has methodological expertise in the design, conduct and analysis of analytical epidemiological studies, including long-term prospective cohort studies incorporating biological markers of nutrition and metabolism and molecular markers of genetic variation. Dr. Cassano’s research group has conducted various kinds of studies on the role of nutrition in lung phenotypes, and Dr. Cassano led the Respiratory Ancillary Study to the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). The findings from her research have contributed to the evidence base informing public health policies and programs to prevent chronic diseases including lung disease.
Dr. Cassano’s interests include the translation of research evidence to policy and practice. She serves as Director of Cornell's PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Research for Health and as Director of the Cochrane US Network Cornell Affiliate Center for Nutrition. She directs the WHO/Cochrane/Cornell Summer Institute on Systematic Reviews in Nutrition for Global Policy Making, which is a collaborative effort among the World Health Organization, Cochrane and the Division of Nutritional Sciences. The Summer Institute has trained over 150 participants from around the world and the resulting systematic reviews are contributing to WHO guidelines to inform nutrition policies and programs.
Dr. Cassano leads the NIH T32 Nutrition Training Program (multi-PIs PA Cassano and SB Qian) and she teaches the foundation course in Epidemiology for graduate students in both the Graduate School of Cornell University and the Weill Cornell Medical College Translational Science program in Clinical Investigation. She also teaches the grant writing course for graduate field of nutrition PhD students.
