Elizabeth A. Yetley, Ph.D., Scientific Consultant (contractor)
Dr. Elizabeth Yetley joined the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in February 2004 as a Senior Nutrition Research Scientist and retired in June 2008. Her primary responsibilities focused on: a) the development of a research and science-based strategy for the role of nutrients in health promotion and disease prevention and b) collaboration with other national and international agencies to facilitate the application of science-based risk assessment approaches to evaluations of nutrient safety and adequacy.
Prior to joining the ODS, Dr. Yetley was employed by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Yetley joined CFSAN as a senior staff fellow in 1980. She held subsequent positions as Section and Branch Chiefs and as Deputy Director for the Office of Nutrition and Food Sciences. In 1992, Dr. Yetley was appointed as Director of the Office of Special Nutritionals where she had regulatory and scientific responsibilities for three product areas: dietary supplements, medical foods, and infant formulas. Between January of 2000 and February of 2004, Dr. Yetley served as FDA's Lead Scientist for Nutrition.
In 1996, Dr. Yetley became the first member of CFSAN to receive an appointment to FDA's Senior Biomedical Research Service. She also served for almost 10 years as the lead of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations-sponsored Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses.
Dr. Yetley received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in human nutrition from Iowa State University. She had written minors in biochemistry and physiology and the course-work equivalence of a minor in psychometrics. During their college years, Dr. Yetley and her husband served as community volunteers in the South East Asian country of Laos and worked with the Agricultural Research Service in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to joining the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Yetley served as Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and at Texas A & M University.
Dr. Yetley is the recipient of numerous awards from the NIH, FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. She is also the recipient of the Bernice K. Watt endowed lectureship at Iowa State University and the Virginia A. Beal honorarium at the University of Massachusetts. She was appointed a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) in 2009 and received the ASN's Conrad Elvehjem Award for Public Service in Nutrition in 2010. Dr. Yetley is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and has been an invited speaker at many professional meetings in the U.S. and internationally.