Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Ph.D., R.D., associate professor in the departments of epidemiology and nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health, has received the March of Dimes Agnes Higgins Award.

The annual award recognizes distinguished achievement in research, education or clinical services in the field of maternal-fetal nutrition. Awardees receive a $3,000 prize and the invitation to present a lecture at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.

This year’s meeting will be held Nov. 3-7, in Washington, D.C.  Siega-Riz will present a lecture, “Maternal Obesity: The Number One Problem Facing Prenatal Care Providers in the New Millennium,” on Nov. 5.

Siega-Riz’s research interests include maternal nutritional status and its relationship to birth outcomes, gestational weight gain and obesity development, and reproductive epidemiology. She is co-investigator on an epidemiological study examining the role of infection, stress, physical activity and nutrition on preterm births. 

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School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.