We are excited to announce that Dr. Jessica Omand recently received a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the School of Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). In this new role, Jessica will fulfill her dream of training future dietitians and advancing her program of research where she strives to optimize the nutritional health and development of Canadian children.
As a Leong Fellow, Jessica worked with Dr. Catherine Birken at The Hospital for Sick Children and the TARGet Kids! research network for 3 years, and explored the relationship between many early life exposures and a child’s school readiness. With 6 published papers, Jessica and her team are now at a pivotal time to look at whether the impact of these early life exposures track into school age outcomes including their academic achievement and well-being in school.
In one paper (Omand et al. 2021), Jessica found children in year 2 of kindergarten at high nutritional risk were 4 times less likely to be ready for school entry.As a follow-up to this project, she plans to assess whether early life nutrition is associated with academic achievement scores with a data sharing agreement in place for this data linkage. Knowing that school plays a crucial role in fostering healthy child development, particularly for children living in low-income households, Jessica hopes that findings from her research will pave the way for tailored nutrition interventions that foster healthy development and help children succeed in school and in life.
Jessica is incredibly appreciative of the support she has received from Dr. Catherine Birken, the TARGet Kids! research team, and the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children for supporting her research and helping her secure her dream position.
