Brian Wansink, M.S., Ph.D.
Executive Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Dr. Brian Wansink was appointed Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) on November 19, 2007.

In this position, Dr. Wansink represents the Department in matters related to nutrition policy and guidance. The two primary objectives of CNPP are to advance and promote dietary guidance for all Americans and to conduct applied research and analysis in nutrition and consumer economics. In this position, Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development, review, and promotion of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the MyPyramid food guidance system, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, and the cost of raising a child.

New initiatives include expanding MyPyramid for target populations, such as moms and pre-school children, and launching new tools including the MyPyramid Menu Planner, the Cost of Raising a Child and Child Cost Calculator, and monthly podcasts. Further, under Project M.O.M. (Mothers & Others & MyPyramid), Dr. Wansink is challenging corporate America to help put an end to childhood obesity by creatively working in win-win ways that promote healthy eating practices and increasing physical activity.

Dr. Wansink joins USDA with over 25 years of experience in nutritional science, food psychology, consumer behavior, food marketing, and grocery shopping behavior. His award-winning academic research on food has been published in leading marketing, medical, and nutrition journals nationally and internationally, and contributed to the development and introduction of “100 calorie” packaging. He is the author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think and Marketing Nutrition. He has been recently featured on 20/20, 60 Minutes, and The Today Show, and in the Washington Post and the New York Times. In January 2008, Dr. Wansink was named Person of the Week by ABC News.

Dr. Wansink has taken an academic leave of absence from his professorship at Cornell University where he holds the John S. Dyson Endowed Chair, Professor of Marketing, and Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. He has had academic appointments at Dartmouth College, Vrije Universiteit (The Netherlands), the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, INSEAD at Fountainbleu (France), U.S. Army Research Labs, and Cornell University.

He received a Ph.D. at Stanford University, 1990; M.A. at Drake University, 1984; and B.A. at Wayne State College, 1982.

Born in Sioux City, IA, Dr. Wansink resides with his wife Jennifer, and daughters Audrey and Valerie.

He regards himself as a mediocre saxophone player having played with a jazz quartet, a 10-piece rhythm and blues band, and a rock band. He enjoys both French food and French fries in portion sizes commensurate with the Dietary Guidelines.

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Last Modified: 10/15/2008