Gina S. Siapco, DrPH

A graduate of the doctoral program at LLU School of Public Health Department of Nutrition, Dr. Gina Segovia-Siapco has returned to the department in April 2009 as assistant professor. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) in Cavite, Philippines. In 2000, she came to Loma Linda University for her doctoral studies and received the Chancellor's Award at her graduation in 2004. After a three-month postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Nutrition, she returned to her native country, Philippines, to resume her teaching position at AIIAS where she served as chair of the Department of Public Health at the School of Graduate Studies from 2006 to 2009. Aside from teaching nutrition and public health courses and mentoring thesis and dissertation students, Dr. Siapco was associate editor of the school's multidisciplinary research journal and often served as a resource person for nutrition conferences both locally and in several countries under the Southern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

Dr Siapco was involved in research projects during her doctoral studies which allowed her to focus on validating food frequency questionnaires to assess food and nutrient intake. She has presented at a number of international nutrition conferences and published several abstracts and peer-reviewed articles in leading nutrition journals. Her current research interests include investigating the role of soy and soy isoflavones on the pubertal onset of boys and girls, the associations between diet, physical activity and sleep on the health status (anthropometric) of adolescents, and validation of food frequency questionnaires. Currently, she is involved in funded research projects including the multi-site Healthy Avocado Trial and the Full Plate Diet Trial. Dr. Siapco is a member of the American Society of Nutrition, American Public Health Association, American  Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health.

Dr. Siapco is teaching nutrition and research courses including Topics in Global Nutrition, Research Applications in Nutrition,  Maternal and Child Nutrition, Doctoral Seminar in Nutrition and Public Health Nutrition & Biology. She also guest lectures for Nutritional Epidemiology and global health courses.