Biography

Dr. Wendelin Slusser is Associate Vice Provost for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and Co-Founder and Academic Director of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight Program. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University, received her Medical Degree and Master’s in Science in Nutrition from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She joined the UCLA faculty in 1996 and since then has been a leader in community, school, clinic, and family-based programs focused on enhancing the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of infants, children, young adults and their caregivers. Dr. Slusser practiced and taught General Pediatrics and health promotion at the Venice Family Clinic for 19 years. She was the PI on the Fruit and Vegetable Bar Intervention study to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income elementary school children in LAUSD that inspired national legislation and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Salad Bar to Schools. She produced Our Food Chain Documentary in collaboration with LAUSD to engage parents, policy makers and children in advocating for healthy school food. She is currently the producer and host of the  Semel HCI LiveWell Podcast. She was selected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine committee called Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children. 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.” She is one of three UC faculty honored in 2015 by President Janet Napolitano for outstanding leadership on the UC Global Food Initiative.  She is a co-leader for the UC Healthy Campus Network and leading the efforts this past year to integrate health into the UC-wide Sustainable Practices Policy.  She also chaired the Wellness and Work Expectations Work Group (WWE WG) as part of the UCLA COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force. In her free time, as a fifth-generation California farmer helps to sustainably farm her family’s Vineyards in the Russian River Valley.