Barbara O. Schneeman, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of Nutrition at the University of California, Davis. From 2004 to 2013 she was the Director of the Office of Nutrition, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In that position, she oversaw the development of policy and regulations for dietary supplements, labeling, food standards, infant formula, and medical foods and served as U.S delegate to two Codex committees (Food Labeling and Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses). From 1976-2004, she was a member of the nutrition and food science faculty at UC Davis. At UC Davis she served in several administrative roles, including Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Associate Vice Provost for University Outreach. She has been a visiting scientist at UC San Francisco, and Assistant Administrator for Nutrition in the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture. Professional activities include serving as the Higher Education coordinator at USAID, participation in Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees (including chair of the 2020 DGAC), member of committees for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, USDA, Food and Agricultural Organization, World Health Organization, the American Society for Nutrition, and the Institute of Food Technologists. She has been Associate Editor for the Journal of Nutrition and on several editorial boards including Nutrition Reviews, Journal of Nutrition, and Journal of Food Science. Her professional honors include Fellow of the American Society of Nutrition, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Awards from the Institute of Food Technology (Carl Fellers, Gilbert Leveille, and Samuel Cate Prescott), the Conrad Elvehjem Award for Public Service in Nutrition, the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation and the Harvey W. Wiley Medal, the FDA Merit Award, Future Leader Award, and several honorary lectureships. She is recognized for her work on dietary fiber, gastro-intestinal function, development and use of food-based dietary guidelines, and policy development in food and nutrition. She received her B.S. degree in Food Science from the UC Davis, Ph.D. in Nutrition from the UC, Berkeley, and postdoctoral training in gastro-intestinal physiology at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California.
