Bentley Wins 2017 Triangle Global Health Award
April 4, 2017
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Margaret “Peggy” Bentley, associate dean for global health and Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been selected as the Triangle Global Health Consortium’s 2017 Triangle Global Health Champion.
Bentley, who is also associate director of the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and fellow at the Carolina Population Center, will be honored at a May 2 meeting of the Consortium for her life-long commitment to advancing global health around the world and in local North Carolina communities.
Bentley’s work is focused upon women’s and infants’ nutrition, infant and young child feeding, behavioral aspects of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and community-based interventions for nutrition and health.
She has led a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded intervention to improve child growth and development in Andhra Pradesh, India, and currently leads an NIH-funded trial in North Carolina for prevention of obesity among infants and toddlers. She is principal investigator for a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to analyze nutrition data from the Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral and Nutrition (BAN) study.
As founding board chair for the Consortium, Bentley envisioned North Carolina as a state that had potential for unparalleled innovation and collaboration. She says her greatest professional accomplishment has been the opportunity to mentor junior faculty and students and to help them develop successful careers of their own.
“I am honored to receive this award, and it is truly a highlight of my career,” Bentley said. “Many of my present and former students and colleagues from North Carolina and around the world share this award with me. I [am glad I came] to Carolina nearly 18 years ago and proud to have been a part of the Triangle Global Health Consortium from its inception.”
“In addition to her own accomplishments as a global health researcher, Peggy is remarkably effective and equally caring when it comes to engaging and mentoring young faculty members as they step into global health,” said Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of nutrition and medicine and chair of the nutrition department at the Gillings School. “Peggy is truly a Global Health Champion, working tirelessly here at UNC and reaching out beyond our academic walls to collaborate creatively to advance global health.”
The Consortium also will recognize BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) with its Corporate Impact Award, in recognition of the company’s efforts to improve diagnostics for a number of diseases that pose threats to global health, and will present the Ward Cates Emerging Leader Award, for leadership, innovation and collaborative spirit, to one of three current finalists.