Our research president

This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of The Bulletin.

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PRESIDENT REBECCA STOLTZFUS ’83 spent a week of May in Tanzania leading a team of researchers from Tanzania, Kenya and the United States. She has been doing collaborative research in Tanzania since 1992, which she started while a Professor of Human Nutrition at Bloomberg School of Public Health (Johns Hopkins University) and then Cornell University. She has over 180 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Since coming to Goshen, two GC faculty and numerous students have become involved, including multiple Maple Scholars.

With a decade of continuous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stoltzfus and
collaborators have studied food quality and the growth of infants in rural central Tanzania, delving particularly into the health effects of aflatoxin on infant growth and pioneering solutions for healthier futures. Aflatoxin is produced by fungi that grow on common food crops.

The team combines expertise in human nutrition, food science, plant pathology and environmental health. Their intercultural, interdisciplinary approach proves that diverse minds can unite to grapple with problems arising from many interdependent factors.

“It’s an exciting team to be a part of because we see things differently, we are not afraid to speak our minds, and we are all more committed to solutions than to our own egos or ideas. This is what makes teams great in research and also leading Goshen College,” said Stoltzfus. “When great minds don’t think alike, we learn.”