Dr. Nina Hill to join CHEAR as faculty investigator in July

Dr. Nina Hill will join CHEAR as a faculty investigator in July, shortly after her two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the center ends in June.

Hill's research focuses on the role of food security in maintaining cardiovascular health across the lifespan, and she's thrilled with the coming opportunity to collaborate within CHEAR and across the U-M campus.

"There's been a lot of interest in thinking about nutrition and food policy here at U-M," Hill said. "I know several people within CHEAR share my interests; there's a nutrition working group within CHEAR. I'm really just excited to join a larger community of people doing similar work."     

Hill, who's also a primary care physician at the Canton Health Center, says her interest in nutrition is rooted in both her work and the Ohio farm where she was raised.

"On the professional side, I work clinically in Med-Peds primary care, so I really love thinking about the life course: How do we provide proper medical care to raise healthy kids who then go on to be healthy adults? I love that longitudinal relationship. Within the research that I do, thinking about food and nutrition is so fundamental to primary care. I spend tons of time counseling kids about calcium intake and milk and that kind of stuff, and trying to get adults to think about fruits and vegetables and heart-healthy diets.

"The personal side of it is that I grew up on a small fruit farm, so food is very central to my family and very central, really, to multiple generations of my family. It's actually a centennial farm that's been in my family for over 100 years, and my parents ran a farm market when I was growing up.

"I wouldn't have expected at that time that there would be this dovetailing of my personal and professional world, but it is kind of neat to see how this has come together."

Hill earned her undergraduate degree in biology and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, and subsequently her medical degree at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"Thinking about food security -- helping to serve families who might not have access to high-quality, affordable, nutritious food -- came primarily through both medical school and residency experiences, working in medical centers where that was really common." 

Hill says that she heard many heartbreaking stories from families: WIC benefits running out too quickly, lack of transportation to get to the store, language barriers to navigating food-assistance programs.

"People were doing the best they could with the resources that they had available," says Hill, whose passions also include health equity and conducting policy-relevant research to improve healthcare and health policies serving vulnerable families.

Outside of work, Hill is a new mother who loves spending time with her 7-month-old son and husband outdoors. She's also an avid runner, did track and cross country through college, and enjoys gardening, cooking and traveling.