Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, Emeritus
Fellow, Carolina Population Center
Dr. Bentley received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in medical anthropology from the University of Connecticut. From 1985-98 she was on the faculty of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Since 1998 she has been on faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she has held several leadership roles. Dr. Bentley’s research focuses on women and infant’s nutrition, infant and young child feeding, behavioral research on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and community-based interventions for nutrition and health. She has particular expertise in qualitative research methods and the application of these for program development and evaluation.
Dr. Bentley formerly led an NIH-funded intervention to improve child growth and development in Andhra Pradesh, India and currently leads an NIH-funded trial in North Carolina for prevention of obesity among infants and toddlers. She is Principal Investigator of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant for analyses of nutrition data from the Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral, and Nutrition (BAN) study. Dr. Bentley was a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-US Joint Working Group on Maternal and Child Health and is a member of the ASPPH Global Health Committee. She is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She was the founding Chair of the Board of Directors of the Triangle Global Health Consortium. She is an officer of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Universities in Global Health. In 2019, she was elected president of the Society for Implementation Science in Nutrition.
Research Projects
- Water, Food, and Health in San Cristobal: The Healthy Family Study
- Food Environments in the Galapagos: Geographic and Behavioral Determinants of Diet and Health
- The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galapagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island
- Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galapagos Islands
Publications
- Nicholas, K.M., Bentley, M.E., Terán, E., & Thompson, A.L. (2019). Water security in the Galápagos: Socioecological determinants and health implications. EcoHealth, 17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-019-01456-w
- Thompson, A.L., Nicholas, K.M., Watson, E., Terán, E., & Bentley, M.E. (2019). Water, food, and the dual burden of disease in Galápagos, Ecuador. American Journal of Human Biology, 32 (1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23344
- Houck, K.M., Terán, E., Ochoa, J., Zapata, G.N., Gomez, A.M., Parra, R., Dvorquez, D., Stewart, J.R., Bentley, M.E., & Thompson, A.L. (2019). Drinking water improvements and rates of urinary and gastrointestinal infections in Galápagos, Ecuador: Assessing household and community factors. American Journal of Human Biology, 32 (1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23358
- Jahnke, J.R., Houck, K.M., Bentley, M.E., & Thompson, A.L. (2019). Rising rates of cesarean delivery in Ecuador: Socioeconomic and institutional determinants over two decades. Birth, 46 (2), 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1111/birt.12421
- Pera, M.F., Katz, B.N.H., & Bentley, M.E. (2019). Dietary diversity, food security, and body image among women and children on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 23(6), 830–838.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-02701-4