Cecile Hoover Edwards is known for her work in nutrition research and advocacy.
Born on October 26, 1926 in East
St. Louis, Illinois Cecile's mother was a
former schoolteacher; her father an insurance agency's manager.
Education and Early
Career
Cecile majored in home economics and minored in nutrition
and chemistry. Those minors took a more major focus as she advanced in her
education.
- Attended segregated schools until age 15 and
then enrolled at Tuskegee Institute
- Earned a bachelor's degree in nutritional
chemistry in 1946
- Received a Carver Foundation fellowship
sponsored by the Swift Meat Packing Company
- Earned a master's degree in organic chemistry in
1947
- Received a two-year General Education Board
fellowship to enter the doctoral program at Iowa State University
- Earned a doctorate in nutrition in 1950
Low-Cost, Nutritious
Food
Cecile primarily studied amino acids and wrote a
dissertation on methionine, an essential amino acid. She was curious about protein production and
how lower-cost foods (such as vegetables) could meet nutritional needs. She studied:
- Which vegetable foods could make the best meals
for the least money
- The southeastern American diet, weighing the
pros of its protein sources and cons of its fat content
- The effects of nutritional, medical,
psychological, and socioeconomic factors on the pregnancies of low-income women
(part of a $4.5 million study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health)
After the completion of her Ph.D., Cecile returned to
academia as an assistant professor and research associate at Tuskegee in 1950. She was the head of the department of foods
and nutrition from 1952-1956.
Cecile worked with the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home
Economics, utilizing her knowledge of hard scientific data related to nutrition
to help transform home economics into more scientific study.
After leaving Tuskegee in 1956 she became professor of
nutrition and research at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University. Cecile taught at the
university and served as head of the department of home economics in
Greensboro, North Carolina until 1971.
In 1971, Cecile joined the faculty at Howard University as a
professor of nutrition and continuing economics. She chaired the department of home economics
from 1971-1974 and was dean of the School of Human Ecology from 1974-1986. She
established the university's Ph.D. program in nutrition and remained associated
with the school until her retirement in 2000.
Cecile's other accomplishments included:
- Chair of the White House Conference Panel on
Community Nutrition in 1969
- President of the Southeastern Conference of
Teachers of Food and Nutrition in 1971
- Chaired the National Conference on Black Youth
Unemployment in 1983
- Published more than 150 articles in scholarly
journals
Cecile died of respiratory failure at age 78 on September
17, 2005.
Resources: African
Americans in Science, Math, and Invention by Ray Spangenburg and Diane Moser;
Black
Women Scientists in the United States by Wini Warren; Chemical
Heritage Foundation - Cecile Hoover Edwards; Encyclopedia
of World Scientists by Elizabeth H. Oakes; The
Washington Post - Cecile H. Edwards Dies at Age 78; Image - findagrave.com
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