SUMMARY

The Hass Avocado Board’s (HAB) mission and vision are:

Mission: HAB strengthens the global avocado industry and its stakeholders in our collective efforts toward market development in the U.S. through leadership in nutrition, communications, business support tools and information, and sustainability practices throughout the supply chain.?

Vision: Fresh Hass avocados will be America’s most popular and desired fruit by 2025. The average annual increase in the value of the fruit consumed on a per person basis in the U.S. will be 6%.

The Avocado Nutrition Center (ANC) exists to deepen the world’s scientific understanding of the avocado. The ANC cultivates an ongoing pipeline of research where each project builds upon the science that came before it. As a result, it is building the leading body of credible and comprehensive nutrition health science about the avocado. The ANC equips research scientists, health professionals, and public health policy influencers to combat misinformation, make policy decisions, and guide consumers with facts and confidence.

GENERAL OVERVIEW ABOUT THE POSITION

The Nutrition Epidemiologist, under the direction of the Executive Director, works day-to-day with the Senior Director of Nutrition. The Nutrition Epidemiologist manages HAB’s observational nutrition research grant program, contributes meaningfully to the scientific body of literature by analyzing publically available data, authoring papers and reports, and presenting research findings. The Nutrition Epidemiologist also makes scientific recommendations for the support of epidemiological research relating to avocados. The Nutrition Epidemiologist also supports the clinical research pipeline by providing insights and expertise on statistical analysis.

Travel is required to attend scientific meetings and to meet with research investigators.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

The position reports to the Executive Director and works day-to-day with the Senior Director of Nutrition, external consultants, academic scientists, and nutrition professionals.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Manages and conducts epidemiological research on dietary patterns, nutrients, foods, and food groups to understand the relationship between exposure and health outcomes, as it relates to avocados
  • Recommends observational projects for funding by HAB’s nutrition research pipeline by identifying gaps and opportunities in the science, reviewing proposals and protocols from researchers, and facilitating external scientific reviews
  • Coordinates a portfolio of independent observational-based avocado research by evaluating study progress through written and oral communication including meeting with lead investigators of funded studies
  • Gathers and analyzes publically available observational datasets (e.g., NHANES) to provide insights for HAB’s clinical research pipeline
  • Presents research findings to HAB staff, the Avocado Nutrition Science Advisory, and externally at scientific conferences
  • Identifies opportunities to suggest the capture of avocado intake into existing or future external research studies
• Ensures scientific integrity by evaluating statistical approaches described in clinical research proposals and offers insights on how to handle trade-offs in research designs
• Supports staff, agency partners, and contractors on scientific communications
• Authors or co-authors scientific papers, review articles, perspectives, and scientific reports
• Develops and coordinates scientific symposia and meetings

EDUCATION & SPECIFIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Ph.D. in nutritional epidemiology, epidemiology, or nutrition science. Preferred background in biostatistics
• Clear experience in designing, writing and following an analysis plan for a variety of observational studies - analyzing data using statistical computing software
• Experience managing a portfolio of projects for a research grant program
• Understands diet collection tools used in observational and clinical research
• Knowledge of analytical techniques used with a variety of study designs ranging from large datasets to small clinical trials
• Detail-oriented and ability to manage multiple projects at a time
• Solid problem-solving skills, forthright, efficient, creative and transparent
• Adheres to the highest scientific standards and contributes meaningfully to the scientific literature