Cecile Hoover Edwards
| Cecile Hoover Edwards | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Cecile Annette Hoover October 26, 1926 East Saint Louis, Illinois |
| Died |
September 17, 2005 (aged 78) Washington, D.C. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Nutrition |
| Institutions |
North Carolina A&T State University Howard University |
| Education |
B.A., nutritional chemistry, Tuskegee Institute M.A., organic chemistry, Tuskegee Institute PhD, nutrition, Iowa State University |
| Thesis | "Utilization of Nitrogen by the Animal Organism" (1950) |
| Known for | Nutritional research for low-income and African American people |
| Spouse | Dr. Gerald Alonzo Edwards |
| Children | 3 |
Cecile Hoover Edwards (October 26, 1926 – September 17, 2005) was an African American nutritional researcher and Howard University dean whose career focused on improving the nutrition and well-being of disadvantaged people. Her scientific focus was on finding low-cost foods with an optimal amino acid composition, with a special interest in methionine metabolism.
She was cited by the National Council of Negro Women for outstanding contributions to science. She also received three citations from the Illinois House of Representatives for devotion to the cause of eliminating poverty.[1] She was honored by the State of Illinois on April 5, 1984, with the declaration of that day as "Dr. Cecile Hoover Edwards Day." [2][3]
Early life and education
Cecile Annette Hoover was born in East Saint Louis, Illinois on October 26, 1926.[1] Her father, Ernest Hoover, managed an insurance company, and her mother, Annie Jordan, was a schoolteacher.[3] She graduated from high school at age 15 and went to Tuskegee Institute, where she graduated in 1946 with a bachelor's degree in nutritional chemistry.[4] She did research on the animal source of protein and received a master's degree in organic chemistry from Tuskegee in 1947, before her twenty-first birthday.[1][4] She received her PhD in nutrition from Iowa State University in 1950, submitting her dissertation on "Utilization of Nitrogen by the Animal Organism: Influence of caloric intake and methionine supplementation on the protein metabolism of albino rats fed rations low in nitrogen and containing various proportions of fat." [4]
Academic career
Edwards became an assistant professor of Foods and Nutrition at Tuskegee from 1950 to 1952, and was promoted to Head of Department from 1952 to 1956.[3][4] During this time, she was also a research associate for the Carver Foundation.[4] In 1956, she moved to North Carolina A&T State University, where she taught Nutrition and research until 1971. She worked as Head of Home Economics Department from 1968 to 1971.[3] In 1971 she moved to Howard University in Washington, D.C., serving as professor of Nutrition and continuing economics.[3] During her tenure there, she was Dean of the School of Human Ecology for 13 years,[3] dean of the School of Continuing Education, and interim dean of the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, and established a doctoral program in nutrition at Howard.
In 1978 she received a Ford Foundation fellowship to act as a nutritional consultant at the University of Khartoum.[4] She returned to Howard University to serve as Dean of the School of Human Ecology from 1974 until her retirement in 1990.[4] While acting as dean, she concurrently oversaw a 5-year program that focused on the pregnancies of low-income women; more specifically, Edwards was interested in how these pregnancies were affected by socioeconomic and nutritive factors.[5]
Research
Much of her career focused on the eating habits of pregnant African-American women.[1] In a paper that was published in May of 1953, Edwards partook in a study that attempted to analyze the effects of dietary supplements during the pregnancies of anemic women.[6] Several correlative conclusions were drawn, among them that the occurrences of birth-related complications in pregnant women with poor diets were higher than in pregnant women who had better diets. Additionally, good diets were correlated with an increase in infant length and weight. Edwards noted that the dietary supplements used in this experiment were both relatively inexpensive and common. She suggested that pregnant women of lower incomes maintain a highly nutritive diet based on these cheap and available foods.
Another key point of Edward's focus was on the amino acid composition of foods, especially vegetables, with the goal of finding low-cost foods that were optimal for protein production.[2] Based on a study performed in India, where school children who consumed dietary supplements of the aforementioned nature had favorable gains in height, weight and hemoglobin, Edwards oversaw a similar experiment in Alabama.[7] School children received low-cost dietary supplements within their school lunches, and over a six-month period, their heights, weights and scholastic scores were recorded. In order to calculate the nutritive value of the meals the children were eating, nutrients such as protein, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin D were measured. Children who received dietary supplements showed an increase in the majority of these nutrients, and also received higher academic evaluations from their teachers; they were more alert and paid better attention.
She had a particular interest in the metabolism of the amino acid methionine, and starting in the 1950s, led an 18-year study for the National Institutes of Health on this topic.[1] In addition, Edwards was interested in postoperative dieting, due to the loss of tissue protein that is observed during surgeries.[8] She was involved in a study that measured how well following surgery adult rats were able to absorb methionine (whose methyl group is used in a variety of biological functions). Ultimately, the rats that underwent surgery had a smaller uptake of methionine, specifically in the tissues that had been affected during the surgery.
In the late 1980s Edwards studied historical dietary patterns in the South, identifying inexpensive traditional dishes that were sources of protein, and developing nutrition plans reducing the amount of fat in African-American cuisine.[1][2] She also performed research on pica.[4]
Edwards opposed hereditarian positions in the nature and nurture debate such as those of Arthur Jensen; she concluded that social and environmental factors were at least as responsible as heredity in influencing intelligence.[1] Furthermore, Edwards worked to spread knowledge about issues such as childcare and financial budgeting to lower income and disadvantaged ethnicities.[5]
In a review Edwards published in 1995, she introduced a concept of population approach, which she believed was how the medical system should treat patients, by viewing and taking into account their social, economic and cultural environments.[9] Moreover, she looked specifically into hypertension within the Black American demographic, and named weight control, reduced sodium chloride intake and physical activities as ways of prevention. At the same time, she cited social factors as possible causes for the higher hypertension rates among Black Americans than among White Americans. For example, Edwards noted that generally and comparatively, Black Americans were more likely to be poor and more likely to live farther from medical treatment. Additionally, she stated that Black Americans suffered from greater psychosocial stress and other social strains due to racism, and that these factors and their correlation towards hypertension required further research.
Edwards was a nutritional consultant and was also a member of numerous government committees and panels, including those convened by the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health.[1][4] She authored 160 research papers, and co-authored a 1991 book, Human Ecology: Interaction of Man With His Environments.[1]
Personal
In 1952[2] she married Gerald Alonzo Edwards, a physical chemist with whom she collaborated on many research projects, and who predeceased her by three months.[1][4] They had three children.[1]
She died on September 17, 2005 in Washington Home Hospice.[1] She is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, US.[10]
Bibliography
- Human Ecology: Interaction of Man With His Environments. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. 1991. ISBN 0-8403-6651-5.
- Quality of Life: Black Families. Howard University. 1991.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Schudel, Matt (24 September 2005). "Cecile H. Edwards Dies at Age 78; Howard Professor, Nutrition Expert". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 "Cecile Hoover Edwards". Chemical Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on July 12, 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Spangenburg, Ray (2003). African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention. Infobase Publishing. pp. 68–69. ISBN 1-4381-0774-9.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Warren, Wini (1999). Black Women Scientists in the United States. Indiana University Press. pp. 88–92. ISBN 0-253-33603-1.
- 1 2 Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2007). Encyclopedia of World Scientists, Revised Addition. New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 202. ISBN 0816061580.
- ↑ Edwards, Cecile H.; Mitchell, Joseph R.; Trigg, Louise; McEnge, Fannie J.; Jones, Lucy (1953). "Influence of Dietary Supplements on Hemoglobin, Erythrocytes, and the Outcome of Pregnancy in Anemic Women". Journal of the National Medical Association. 45.3.
- ↑ Edwards, Cecile H.; Grimmett, Garfield; Lomax, James A. (1956). "Influence of a Low Cost Dietary Supplement on Scholastic Achievement and "Personality Factors" of Elementary School Children". Journal of the National Medical Association. 48.4.
- ↑ Edwards, Cecile H.; Gadsden, Evelyn L.; Edwards, Gerald A. (1964). "Utilization of methionine by the adult rat: VI. Influence of anesthesia and surgery on the uptake of methionine-2-C14 and methionine-methyl-C". Journal of Surgical Research. 4 (3).
- ↑ Edwards, Cecile H. (1995). "Emerging issues in lifestyle, social, and environmental interventions to promote behavioral change related to prevention and control of hypertension in the African-American population". Journal of the National Medical Association. 87 (8).
- ↑ "Cecile Hoover Edwards". Find A Grave. Retrieved 26 October 2015.