Abby Gwen Ershow is an American nutritionist specialized in

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

nutrition, lipid metabolism,

atherogenesis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis in which the wall of the artery develops abnormalities, called lesions. These lesions may lead to narrowing due to the buildup of atheromatous plaque. At onset there are usually no sy ...

, and cardiovascular nutrition. She was a health science administrator at the

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue to ...

from 1982 to 1989 and a senior nutrition scientist at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Office of Dietary Supplements from 2014 to 2021.

Life

Ershow completed a B.A. degree in biological sciences (physiology) from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1973. She earned a Sc.D. degree in nutrition, physiology and biostatistics from

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

in 1979. Her dissertation was titled, ''Dietary effects of plasma lipoproteins and lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)''. She is a registered

dietitian A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ca ...

. Ershow was a staff fellow in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program of the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

from 1982 to 1989, where she worked on projects in China and Japan. From 1989 to 2014, Ershow worked at the

(NHLBI) where she managed an extramural portfolio in lipid metabolism, atherogenesis, and cardiovascular nutrition. At NHLBI, Ershow set up the Dietary Effects on Lipoproteins and Thrombogenic Activity (DELTA) multicenter diet intervention trial and developed the plan for the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program, an interagency food composition project involving USDA, NHLBI and other NIH institutes along with many other federal partners. In 2007, she was elected a fellow of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

and also completed a detail assignment as a visiting analyst at the

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

. From 2014 to December 2021, she was a senior nutrition scientist in the

(NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) where she led its iodine initiative to strengthen research on and develop data resources for studies of iodine nutrition. Ershow was particularly involved with interagency collaborations with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

to develop databases of the iodine content of foods and dietary supplements. She also participated in an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey program data to determine the proportion of U.S. pregnant women advised by their physicians to take supplements containing iodine, which underscored concerns about whether iodine intake is adequate in this population. After retiring in December 2021, Ershow contributes to ODS projects as a consultant. Ershow is a volunteer Maryland master naturalist docent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ershow, Abby Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Cornell University alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni National Institutes of Health people American women nutritionists American dietitians 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American medical researchers American women medical researchers American naturalists Women naturalists Fellows of the American Heart Association