People

Christopher has been a consultant and writer with the Gardner group for nearly four years, helping produce grants and publish manuscripts. He hold an MA in Endocrinology and PhD in Cellular Biology from Indiana University and University of Michigan and with Stanford’s Creative Writing Program. He has worked as a writer both within staff positions at Stanford and a Faculty appointment at Dartmouth Medical School, in industry at Genentech, and in government science positions at NASA and DOE. He was a previous editor for JAMA and Ann int Med and advises academic clients on manuscript and grant writing. He is also an award-winning writer of three novels. A native Californian, Christopher lives in the wilds of Vermont with his wife Maureen.

Diane joined the Nutrition Studies Group in October of 2013. Prior to working at Stanford University, she received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at San Jose State University in 2011. Since 2013, she has served on several studies as a diet assessor and research associate for the group until 2019 when she stepped into the role of clinical research coordinator for the RAMP Study. In addition to nutrition, Diane enjoys cooking, the outdoors, traveling, and spending time with her family.

Megan joined the Nutrition Studies Group as Communications Director in January 2024. She has over 15 years of experience in communications and has spent her career promoting research, programs, and advocacy efforts all centered around health equity. Prior to her role at Stanford, she led communications at Partnership for a Healthier America where she worked on national food equity campaigns, including the “Pass the Love” campaign with former First Lady Michelle Obama. She is passionate about leveraging storytelling and digital media to foster healthier people and places.

Dalia is a Registered Dietitian and a Certified Diabetes Educator. She has always been interested in both Nutrition research and its application in clinical practice and has worked in both environments. For 14 years she was a clinical dietitian at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation counseling people with diabetes, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders and other conditions. She understands the power of diet in disease prevention and treatment and in her current role as a research dietitian she strives to elucidate the use of dietary measures to effectively promote optimal health. Some of the studies Dalia has worked on include the effects of a low carb or low fat diet on weight loss, relationship between dietary intake and adipocyte function, the effect of dietary fibers on the microbiome, and personalizing dietary recommendations for optimal blood sugar control.

Erika has been working within the School of Medicine for 8 years in the areas of population health, palliative care and nutrition education. She joins the team as a health educator for the FeFiFo Family and our Maternal-Infant Microbiome studies. Prior to Stanford, Erika earned her Masters in Public Health Nutrition from UC Berkeley, with a focus on equitable food systems and integrating food as medicine in health care. In her personal time, you can find her in the kitchen, exploring in the mountains or curled up with a book and her two black cats.

Cate Ward, PhD, RD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Stanford Prevention Research Center. Cate received her doctoral degree in Metabolic Biology from UC Berkeley, where she characterized metabolic flux changes of the unfolded protein response. She completed her dietetic training at UCSF and continues to see patients through her private nutrition practice. As a fellow, she studies metabolic and microbiome differences across dietary interventions, currently focusing on the FeFiFo-MOMs study.