Dr. Britt Burton Freeman

2022 Heart and Health Aging Session Chair

Britt Burton-Freeman, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health’s (IFSH) Center for Nutrition Research and Associate Professor in Food Science and Nutrition and Biomedical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). She also holds a research nutritionist appointment in the department of Nutrition at UC Davis and is affiliated with the Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Burton-Freeman’s current research interests are in mitigating disease processes through dietary approaches focused on bioactive components of foods. Specific disease targets are cardiovascular, metabolic syndrome and obesity. Current work focuses on physiological effects and mechanistic underpinnings of polyphenols and novel carbohydrates, including their pharmaco-kinetic and -dynamic relationships in human biology to impact health status. The influence of food matrix, processing, host/microbiome characteristics and interactions are also being addressed.

As the Director for the Center for Nutrition Research at IIT/IFSH in conjunction with the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, she leads a nutrition and health initiative with food industry partners and government collaborators to provide critical science that supports policy, dietary recommendations and comprehensive innovative solutions linking nutrition and food safety to improve the health and quality of life of Americans. Recent work has focused on fiber definitions for labeling and perceptions/responses to key terms associated with health in low income populations.

Dr. Burton-Freeman is actively involved in multiple professional societies dedicated to health and disease abatement including the American Society for Nutrition, the Obesity Society, the American Chemical Society and the Institute of Food Technologist. Dr. Freeman publishes in various top Journals and is co Editor-in-Chief of Nutrition and Healthy Aging.

Dr. Burton-Freeman holds a BS in Dietetics from the California State University, Chico, a MS and PhD in Nutritional Biology from the University of California, Davis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of California, Davis. Dr. Burton-Freeman has held professional appointments in academia and the biotechnology industry leading research programs and teams to deliver on basic and clinical science objectives.

Luke Howard, PhD

Dr. Howard received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Purdue University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science from the University of Arkansas. He worked as an Analytical Chemist at the Dole Packaged Foods Research and Development Center for two years, and was an Assistant Professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department at Texas A&M University for five years. He has served on the faculty in the Department of Food Science at the University of Arkansas since 1997 (Associate Research Professor 1997-2002, Professor 2002-present).

His research program is focused on extraction and characterization of bioactive compounds in fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, with emphasis on berries. Dr. Howard has published over 120 scientific articles and five book chapters and has delivered over 90 presentations at scientific meetings. He is a Professional Member of the American Chemical Society.