Our Team

CHI was founded in February 18, 2013 with a focus on leveraging the work spearheaded by Dr. James Hébert on the effects of inflammatory diets on health in the commercial markets. The first innovation of CHI is its proprietary DII^® which through strategic partnerships among the healthcare, insurance, research and technology sectors moves the DII^® from the research sector to the commercial marketplace.

	Founder:
	James R. Hébert, ScD– Dr. Hebert’s professional focus has been on developing and refining the Dietary Inflammatory Index™ (DII^®). Since 1988, Dr. James R. Hébert has been the Principal Investigator (P.I.), co-P.I., or subcontract P.I. on 48 federal grants with budgets totaling ~$81 million. He has published over 330 peer- reviewed papers in high-impact medical journals, with most of these focusing on various aspects of diet on health including methodologic issues encountered in the measurement of diet. Dr. Hébert’s primary administrative role is as the Director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPCP), based at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His primary academic appointment is in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Arnold School of Public Health of the University of South Carolina. He also holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine in the USC School of Medicine and in the Department of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Hébert has established strong collaborations around the world in the areas of public health, cancer prevention and control, and epidemiology & biostatistics as a nutritional and cancer epidemiologist. Over the decade, Dr. Hébert has spent considerable effort developing the DII^®, which has now been established as an effective research tool and translated to a suite of products to guide individuals on a path to improved health outcomes.
	Operations:
	Julia Houston, MSW is the Chief Operations Officer for CHI. Julia holds a Masters of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of South Carolina. She has vast experience working in the non-profit sector with patient and cancer advocacy organizations. Her ability to organize cancer advocacy organizations resulted from the utilization of technological communication platforms and engaging each stakeholder in a strategic communications campaign to navigate cancer survivors to resources for support and self-care. For over 40 years, she owned and managed small businesses and her responsibilities included marketing, sales, web development, client recruitment and retention. Ms. Houston served as the Regional 1 North Coordinator of the Geographical Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program within the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities Program of the National Cancer Institute and also the Director of the Diet and Other Lifestyle Intervention Unit (DOLIU) within the CPCP at USC. Her ability to build coalitions and engage stakeholders around health disparities is of significance to her role in CHI .
	Thomas G. Hurley, MPH is the Director of Data Operations for CHI. Tom served as the Director of both the Diet Assessment Research Unit and the Data Analysis and Management Unit in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPCP) and has accumulated extensive experience in the study of the effects of lifestyle-related risk factors such as diet and physical activity on chronic disease. In particular, a large part of his past efforts have been in improving diet assessment methodologies, including work done as the lead biostatistician with the Nutrition Working Group in the NCI funded Behavioral Change Consortium, and more recently, his efforts directed at developing the Dietary Inflammatory Index™ (DII^®) and the Children’s DII^® (C-DII^®) with a team of researchers in CPCP, examining the effects of inflammation on multiple chronic disease outcomes. He has over 20 years experience in the collection, management and analysis of research data.
	Prashant Duhoon, MPH Phd(c) is the Chief Technology Officer for CHI. Prashant completed his graduate degrees within the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina and Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at University of Florida. Prashant’s experience in information technology in healthcare was initially gained through employment as Graduate Assistant and as Data Engineer at College of Engineering and Computing at UofSC. Prashant is an expert developer and architect of technologies in support of encouraging behavior change strategies and deployment of applicable tools to realize optimal health. Additional areas of expertise include betterment of human centric experiences of technology and to improve information exchanges, informatics and architect secure infrastructures for health and wellness sectors.
	Michael Wirth, PhD, MSPH is currently a Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Core Faculty at the Cancer Prevention and Control Program within the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. He has worked closely with Dr. Shivappa and others at the CPCP with respect to the DII^®. He is first author on several DII^®-based manuscripts that are currently under review at top peer-reviewed occupational and environmental health journals. His focus on circadian biology has evolved to incorporate the effect of diet on inflammatory outcomes through pathways related to circadian rhythmicity. The CPCP sees the connection to circadian biology as essential to this work because the most common sequelae of stress is disturbance in sleep, which in turn has dire implications for health-related behaviors such as diet and physical activity. The DII^® has evolved to become a major component of this research. Indeed, his work on the relationship between sleep, stress, and the DII^® (and diet more generally) will inform the current study in important ways. His experience in statistical software programs (e.g., SAS^®, which was used to develop the DII^® and has formed the basis for virtually all DII^®-dependent analyses) and database management has been an important part of analyzing and maintaining datasets through which DII^® results have been generated.
	Sherry Price, MPH completed her Bachelor’s degree within the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior and her Master’s degree within the Department of Health Services, Policy and Management within the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Sherry’s focus is on nutrition and the role it plays in the development of cancer. Sherry has a broad background in sleep, with specific training and certification in clinical sleep health, sleep education, and polysomnography. Sherry has specialized training in the Nutrition Data System for Research and is the resident expert for recipe calculations to realize DII<sup>©</sup> – Certified Recipes.
	Erin Plenzler, MS, RND, LD completed her Bachelor of Science in Food Science with a concentration in Nutrition at Clemson University and her master’s degree in nutrition at East Carolina University. She completed her dietetic internship through East Carolina University. Erin’s experience in dietetics was initially gained through her employment as a clinical dietitian at Providence Hospital, now MUSC Columbia Medical Center. While working at MUSC Columbia, Erin advanced in her career to Clinical Nutrition Manager. Additional areas of expertise include medical nutrition therapy, critical care, nutrition support, food science, and wellness.
	Gauri Sathe serves as the Site Coordinator for CHI.

	Collaborators And Consultants:
	Sonny Dickinson is the Business Development Manager for CHI and the CEO of the Dickinson Group, which focuses on products development and retail marketing for locally sourced foods. As the former Assistant Director of Marketing for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, Sonny understands the significance of fresh foods consumption and the need for sustainable initiatives. The growing trend focused on health, as being led by CHI, provides a positive impact on farmers, retailers and stakeholders focused on growing public health initiatives and economic opportunity within South Carolina and beyond.
	Brook Harmon, PhD, RD, FAND is an Associate Professor in Nutrition and Foods at Appalachian State University. She holds a BS in human nutrition, MS in exercise science, PhD in health promotion, education, and behavior, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer epidemiology at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. She is also a registered dietitian and holds a certificate in gerontology. Before earning her doctorate, she served as the Director of Dietary Interventions at the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of South Carolina. She served as a dietetic preceptor for 8 years and has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels for 10 years. Dr. Harmon uses the application of community-based participatory research practices to examine the role of the faith-based community in the development and implementation of health promotion and disease prevention programs. Much of her work includes partnering with churches to promote health through culinary and physical activity skills training as well as research on leadership and environmental factors that influence healthy behaviors.
	Dr. Karen Peterson is Professor and Chair of the Nutritional Sciences Department at the School of Public Health, Research Professor for the Center for Human Growth and Development, and Director of the Momentum Center, all at the University of Michigan. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the influence of biosocial and environmental influences on child growth and maturation during sensitive developmental periods, as well as the design and evaluation of population-based interventions addressing dietary and physical activity behaviors related to obesity and chronic disease in diverse populations, including children and youth. She is Contact PI for the U-M Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Protection Center on the theme: “Lifecourse exposures and diet: Epigenetics, maturation, and metabolic syndrome,” and serves as Associate Director of the Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (MNORC). She earned her ScD in Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.