Biography

Dr. Marissa Cloutier is an award-winning associate professor and registered dietitian nutritionist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She has taught in higher education for nearly 25 years. Dr. Cloutier teaches with full heart, and her enthusiasm for the subject matter shines through in all her teaching endeavors. She truly cares for her students and their development as professionals and as global citizens. Her pedagogical approach includes community service-learning and civic engagement projects.

Dr. Cloutier provides leadership on many committees throughout campus. Notably, she serves as the chair of the Climate Change Pedagogy Task Force that is actively working towards climate change as a part of all curricula across the Temple University campuses. Marissa is also the co-chair of the Food Security Task Force at Temple University that is working to ensure all within the Temple University community have access to healthy food and other basic needs.

Dr. Cloutier’s research includes measuring the impact of climate change on local food systems and assessing what is needed to sustain viable healthy food production, delivery, and accessibility for all. Marissa also is involved with surveying the accessibility of nutrition and other basic needs of college and university students.

Dr. Cloutier's training included the undertaking of a largely self-directed doctoral program at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA. At a time when the understanding of the nexus between climate change, nutrition, and public health was in its infancy, she enrolled herself in courses in the atmospheric, water, and agricultural sciences, along with epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition science, and environmental health. Her studies at Harvard culminated in a dissertation that correlated the healthfulness of global diets to impacts on climate change and international water resources. Dr. Cloutier also holds a master of science degree in human nutrition and metabolism from Boston University (Boston, MA) and a bachelor of science degree in nutrition sciences from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, CA).

Dr. Cloutier grew up in the Central Valley of California. Her extended family grew grapes for the wine industry and ardently celebrated the consumption of foods from the earth. This instilled a zeal for health and nutrition that ignited Dr. Cloutier’s career in dietetics and education. It also helped her become a successful freelance writer, most notably landing on The New York Times Best Seller list eight times for The Mediterranean Diet.

Dr. Cloutier has appeared on television, radio, and in print, and has enthusiastically delivered speeches in various venues espousing the need for healthful eating (especially in ways that preserve traditional cultural foods) for individual and planetary health. Anyone who has interacted with Dr. Cloutier can attest to her infectious passion for celebrating health, community, the arts, and each other.

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Education

• ScD, Nutrition Science, Harvard University School of Public Health
• MS, Human Nutrition and Metabolism, Boston University
• Dietetic Internship, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA)
• BS, Nutrition Sciences, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Curriculum Vitae