Leah Cahill, RD, PhD

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Scientist and Associate Professor
Nova Scotia Health and Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia | @leahcahill

CWHHA member since April 2024

Biography

Dr. Leah Cahill (she/her) is the principal investigator of the nourish research team(www.nourishteam.ca) at Nova Scotia Health and Dalhousie University in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health and Epidemiology. Her team studies the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases (heart attack, stroke, heart failure, clinical malnutrition/wasting, and type 2 diabetes)using epidemiological and clinical patient-oriented research methods that incorporate novel biomarkers, environmental factors (especially nutrition), and social determinants of health. The only professor at Dalhousie who is a licensed dietitian, Dr. Cahill completed her PhD at the University of Toronto in nutritional genomics before working as a post-doctoral scientist at Harvard University researching the nutritional and genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular disease where she won Harvard’s Outstanding Cardiovascular Fellow Award in her second of five years. Since then, she has received many awards for her research, including mentoring and research awards from Dalhousie University and the American Heart Association. Dr. Cahill has had a high rate of grant success as both a principal investigator and a co-investigator, and her students have received an impressive number of scholarships and awards, are publishing their work, and are supporting each other well as a team. The nourish team includes a 10-person patient-public partner panel, research staff, graduate students, medical students, medical residents, and partnerships with administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Dr. Cahillis proud of her team and has many ideas for how they can remain on the edge of innovation to conduct heart and stroke research with meaningful long-term impact on Nova Scotia and the Maritimes!