Taking the Lead in the UAE’s Nutrition

Dr. Ayesha Salem Obaid Al Dhaheri, currently holds the position of Vice Dean in the College of Food and Agriculture at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Dr. Al Dhaheri earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Nutrition from Oxford Brookes University, England, in 2007 after gaining an M.Sc. in the Environmental Sciences: Clinical Nutrition from UAEU in 2002.

Dr. Al Dhaheri joined the United Arab Emirates University in 2008 as a research assistant. She became an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences in 2015. She also serves as Assistant Dean for Professional Development; President of the Emirates Clinical Nutrition Society and as a coordinator for MEFOODS and GULFOODS – FAO in Rome.

Dr. Al Dhaheri’s research promotes greater awareness of the prevention and treatment of nutrition related diseases. This is the goal of her current Emirates Foundation-sponsored projects where she is the principal investigator. Recently her research team compiled the first authoritative guide to the nutritional composition of traditional Emirati food and the impact such food has on blood sugar levels.

Another research project is ‘Setting up and Running School Gardens.’ This is conducted in cooperation with the FAO; the General Women’s Union and the Abu Dhabi Food Control Agency. Dr. Al Dhaheri edited and published an Arabic version of the teaching toolkit and manual for this project.

Additionally, she has an ongoing project that focuses on the relationship between body mass index (BMI), body circumference and skinfold thickness in terms of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and blood pressure (BP). This is being conducted with female UAEU students.

She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in cooperation with other national and international scientists, and regularly participates in international conferences and interdisciplinary research projects in nutritional and clinical sciences.

Also, she has organized a series of events. These include the International Growth and Development Conference (‘Healthy Ageing: Pediatric to Geriatric’), the first conference of its kind in the region. 

One of her many notable achievements has been when the University College London’s (UCL) Division of Medicine – Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, selected Dr. Al Dhaheri to be an Honorary Fellow from the 1st October, 2017 to 30th September, 2020.

Outside of work, Dr. Al Dhaheri enjoys spending quality time with her family and loves to engage herself in activities such as natural soap making, cooking and crochet sewing.