Dr. Kathryn (Mandy) Hillstrom has worked at Cal State LA for the past 15 years in the nutritional science program.  Mandy started her educational voyage at UC, Santa Barbara where she earned a BS in biopsychology then moved to North Carolina, where she earned her Master's in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  At the same time, she took the coursework to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.  She spent about 12 years working in the field of dietetics in various jobs including: as a catering manager, in a hospital as a clinical dietitian, running a kitchen for a small hospital, working for the Women, Infants and Children program, directing a non-profit which focused on helping overweight kids and their families learn about health and conducting diabetes research. Mandy went back to school at USC to earn a doctorate in education, focusing on Educational Psychology.  Her research interests include maternal and child nutrition and community health, especially food insecurity and access to resources. 

Mandy is thrilled at the opportunity to chair the newly created Department of Nutrition and Food Science. She is most excited about the opportunity to highlight the importance of nutrition and food science on campus and make both programs more visible. On a personal level, Mandy has a husband who works in educational technology, twin boys, who are 14, and a daughter who is 12. She loves cooking and going to the beach with them, and traveling, especially to national parks

Dr. Anureet K. Shah received her B.Sc. in Biotechnology from HMV college (Jallandhar) affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University of India in 2006 and M.Sc. in Biotechnology from SD College (Chandigarh) affiliated to Panjab University of India in 2008. She received Ph.D. in Nutrition from the Texas Woman’s University of Dallas (Texas), U.S.A in 2014. Beginning from 2014 to 2017, Dr. Shah as an Adjunct Professor taught several courses in human nutrition and nutritional biochemistry at Texas Woman’s University, Tarrant County College District, Dallas County Community College District. In 2018, she joined California State University as an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences in the department of Kinesiology, Nutrition and Food Sciences, Los Angeles, California. She is currently a Professor, Principal Investigator and Scientist in the Nutritional Sciences department in collaboration with Biochemistry department at California State University, Los Angeles. She has published several full-length papers in scientific journals and book chapters in the area of cardiovascular sciences and nutrition. 

Sunil Mangalassary is an associate professor of Food Science and Technology in the School of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science at Cal State LA. He received his Ph.D. in Food Technology from Clemson University, South Carolina. His entrepreneurial project focuses on the development of antimicrobial food packaging polymers and suitable food fermentation technologies to enhance the microbiological safety of food products.

Dr. Gottesman is the program director for the Didactic Program in Dietetics and an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science. She is a registered dietitian nutritionist who started her career as a critical care dietitian at a large teaching hospital.  After years in clinical practice, she began working with an international contract food management company as a clinical nutrition manager and regional support. She had the opportunity to work all over the country lending leadership support to hospitals in multiple states. Throughout these experiences, Dr. Gottesman also taught both undergraduate and graduate nutrition classes as well as was a preceptor for numerous dietetic interns. While working full-time she became a Certified Nutrition Support Clinician and earned both a master's degree in Human Nutrition and Health and a Doctorate of Clinical Nutrition. Her final doctoral research explored physical activity and cardiometabolic health among women with overweight or obesity.   At California State University, Los Angeles, Dr. Gottesman is working on research involving changes in lifestyle behaviors among college students pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic.  She is also a volunteer for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Evidence Analysis Center in which she has been working with a group of nutrition and exercise professionals summarizing the research on diet and physical activity for the general adult population.  Dr. Gottesman is also a program reviewer for the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND).  

Dr. Michele Nicolo worked as a registered dietitian while obtaining her Master's of Science degree in Nutrition from the New York Institute of Technology in New York.  Dr. Nicolo earned her Ph.D. in Nutrition Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Her dissertation research focused on risk factors of diabetes among adults ages 40 to 59 years using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Dr. Nicolo was awarded a NIH funded Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California. During the postdoctoral fellowship, her research focused on health behaviors specifically surrounding attitudes and behaviors accounted with COVID-19. Dr. Nicolo joined California State University Los Angeles as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science in Spring 2023.