April 1, 2024 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Victoria Adebiyi has big goals. The Ph.D. in Health Promotion Education and Behavior (HPEB) candidate plans to improve maternal and child nutrition and health in low- and middle-income countries after her 2025 graduation – continuing the path she began a decade ago in Nigeria.
As an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, Adebiyi became interested in public health nutrition when one of her courses introduced the various related challenges her country faced. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in human nutrition, she completed a hospital-based internship to become a registered dietitian.
“The burden of preventable diet-related chronic diseases that I encountered during my dietetics training only fueled my passion to study public health nutrition to understand how to prevent such diseases on a broader scale, beyond the individual level,” Adebiyi says.
With a scholarship from the Mastercard Foundation, she enrolled in a master of public health program at the University of California, Berkeley. During this time, she became involved with the School of Law’s Health and Human Rights Program and interned with Save the Children International over a summer back in Nigeria.
When looking for doctoral programs. Adebiyi sought a setting with researchers involved in global nutrition work where she could explore her growing interests in maternal and child nutrition and health. The Arnold School’s HPEB department hit the mark, and she found mentors in faculty members Leila Larson and Edward Frongillo.
“I am grateful for the immense academic and professional support I have received from my mentors since the beginning of my program at USC,” Adebiyi says. “Under their supervision, I have been able to study the determinants and consequences of food insecurity and anemia among women and children globally, especially in limited-income contexts, and co-author peer-reviewed publications.”
She credits their support in her successful procurement of funding for her dissertation research. With a training grant from the Nestlé Foundation, Adebiyi is researching how mothers in urban Nigeria make breastfeeding decisions upon returning to work after childbirth.
“This is a very competitive award, and Victoria worked hard to earn it,” says Larson. “As part of her dissertation, she is conducting her own mixed methods research in Nigeria, interviewing postpartum women and their social networks. The World Health Organization recommends exclusively breastfeeding children until six months of age, but for many working women, whether it be urban Nigeria or Columbia, South Carolina, this is a personal and often hidden struggle.”
Adebiyi plans to continue this type of research after completing her degree. Working with a research institute, international non-governmental organization or in academia, her goal is to design and implement evidence-based interventions to improve maternal and child nutrition and health in Sub-Saharan Africa and other low- and middle-income settings. She is also interested in working with governments in the Global South to scale up existing evidence-based interventions and develop food policies to combat malnutrition.
At USC, Adebiyi has taken on leadership positions with the Maternal and Child Health Student Association, where she coordinated a student-faculty event, and the International Student and Global Health Forum, where members share their cultures, health systems and visions for their countries. At the national level, Adebiyi is student representative for the Global Nutrition Council of the American Society of Nutrition. She has enjoyed living in SC's capital city and the supportive campus community.
“I have been exposed to and learned a lot from students from different cultures both in and out of classes,” says Adebiyi, who also has advice for academic success. “Find and connect with professors whose research interests align with yours and who will propel you to think critically and support you all through your program. There is a plethora of such professors who are very supportive of students’ progress in the HPEB department, so consider applying!”
