Profiles

Dr. Wendelin Slusser is Associate Vice Provost (AVP) for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, building a culture of health and equity through a collective impact model for the over 85,000 students, staff, and faculty. She is also HS Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and Co-Founder and Academic Director of the UCLA Fit for Health program. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University, received her MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons and MS from the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, New York. As a Pediatrician and Educator for UCLA Pediatric Residents for 20 years at the Venice Family Clinic she emphasized in her teaching to care for patients holistically including addressing the multiple determinants of health. As the AVP of Semel HCI, Dr. Slusser focuses on building health equity through promotion of physical, social and emotional well-being at UCLA, the UC system, statewide & nationally. Her leadership for the UC Global Food Initiative inspired the establishment of the UC Healthy Campus Network, based on the successes of Semel HCI Center. As a co-leader of the UC Healthy Campus Network, Dr. Slusser leads efforts to integrate health equity into the UC system with initiatives such as UC Diabetes Prevention Program, the UC Sustainable Practices Policy, Healthy Vending Initiative, and Healthy Beverages Initiative. In addition, she led the Campus Recovery and Response Task Force’s Wellness & Work Expectations Work Group to ensure the UCLA community’s well-being issues were addressed and included in the campus plans to respond to operational changes required during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has a career long focused on advocating for healthy food for young children in LA schools and was the PI on the Fruit and Vegetable Bar Intervention study that inspired national legislation and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Salad Bar to Schools campaign. She was the PI on the Prevention of Childhood Overweight through Parent Training Intervention Project focused on low-income preschool children and their parents; the LA County Department of Public Health is implementing this parenting project countywide. She was selected in 2010 to be a member of the Institute of Medicine committee, Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children; honored in 2015 by President Janet Napolitano for outstanding faculty leadership on the UC Global Food Initiative; received the Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. award in 2010 from the American Journal of Health Promotion for making an outstanding contribution to serving the health promotion needs of underserved populations; and in 2008 was Awarded the Beverllee Myers Award of Excellence, given annually to an individual who has exhibited outstanding leadership and accomplishments in public health in California; In 2020 she received the Venice Family Clinic Visionary Award and the UCLA Community Program Office’s Open Heart, Open Mind Award “for her collaborative spirit, dedication in making the campus healthier and supporting basic needs insecure students during the COVID-19 Crisis.” In her free time, she leads the sustainability efforts for the Slusser Ranch in the Russian River Valley as a member of a fifth-generation California farming family. See Dr. Slusser’s UCLA TedX talk, UCLA LiveWell podcasts and Our Food Chain Documentary