The LA CaTS Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Amanda Staiano, PhD, as the Pennington Biomedical Lead and Co-Director of the LA CaTS Professional Development Core. She will be part of the core's leadership team along with Vivian Fonseca, MD (Tulane University) and Daniel Kapusta, PhD (LSU Health New Orleans).

Dr. Staiano earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Georgetown University in 2010. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Pennington as an NIDDK T32 trainee from 2011 to 2013 and joined the Pennington Biomedical faculty as an Assistant Professor of Research in 2013. In 2017, she completed the LA CaTS Roadmap Scholar Program. A highly productive investigator, Dr. Staiano focuses on preventing and reducing obesity in children and adolescents through innovative, translational research and scientific advocacy. Her accomplishments include 122 peer-reviewed publications and over $17 million in grant funding. She has served as PI or Co-PI on 16 clinical and translational research grants. Her strong research program was a key factor in her promotion to Associate Professor at Pennington Biomedical.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Staiano to this important leadership role within the LA CaTS Team.