Wendelin Margaret Slusser MD , MS

Summary

• Dr. Wendelin Slusser is Associate Vice Provost for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health. After pediatric residency, her career began with her work in primary health care coordination for Save the Children in Africa, South America, and Asia. She later brought these global experiences to Los Angeles, contributing significantly as a UCLA physician, researcher, educator, and senior administrator. Food is central to her work, exemplified by the Fruit and Vegetable Bar Intervention study, which influenced local and national policies and campaigns, including former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Salad Bar to Schools Campaign.
  
  Slusser has been instrumental in integrating nutrition into health professional education at UCLA and across California and led the creation of the UCLA Pediatric Residents’ primary care training track at Venice Family Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center. She established the UCLA teaching kitchen and learning laboratory, designed to enhance nutrition education for health professionals, address food insecurity, and support research. She serves as Co-Principal Investigator for the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative Multisite Food as Medicine clinical trial and Principal Investigator on Basic Needs: Learning from our Community study.
  
  Her contributions have garnered wide recognition, including being a member of the Institute of Medicine committee, Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children and one of three UC faculty members honored by UC President Janet Napolitano for outstanding leadership on the UC Global Food Initiative. In her free time, as a fifth-generation Californian farmer, Dr. Slusser leads the sustainability efforts for her family’s ranch. See Dr. Slusser’s UCLA TedX talk, and UCLA LiveWell podcasts.