Harriet V. Kuhnlein

Harriet Kuhnlein is a nutritionist and Founding Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) and Emerita Professor of Human Nutrition at McGill University. Dr. Kuhnlein received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from The University of Western Ontario. She was Assistant, then Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia before joining McGill University as Director of the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition in 1985, a position she held until the founding of CINE in 1993.

Dr. Kuhnlein directs a Global Health Research initiative that received primary funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Twelve cultures of Indigenous Peoples in different parts of the world are involved in this project. The overall intent of the initiative is to provide evidence that biodiversity inherent in traditional food resources of Indigenous Peoples fosters food security and good health and should be environmentally protected. She has served as a member of the Advisory Board for CIHR – Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, and with the Executive of the Canadian Coalition of Global Health Research. Dr. Kuhnlein chairs the Task Force on Traditional, Indigenous and Cultural Food and Nutrition of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Dr. Kuhnlein holds membership in several nutrition societies and the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health. She is the 2001-02 recipient of McGill University’s Earle W. Crampton Award for Distinguished Service in Nutrition and the 1993 winner of the Canadian Jack Hildes Medal for Circumpolar Health. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Nutrition and a Fellow the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

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