NIHERST: Caribbean Icons in STI

Dr Norge Jerome is an international health and nutrition specialist. During her doctrinal studies at the University of Wisconsin, she developed the discipline of nutritional anthropology, which has since existed for 40 years and become recognised internationally. She was the founder and first president of the Committee on Nutritional Anthropology (now Council on Nutritional Anthropology) and spent four decades at the University of Kansas School of Medicine as a professional nutritionist, educator and consultant.

Norge Jerome was born in St. John, Grenada in 1930. At that time, few children were able to attend secondary school but she was an excellent student who successfully secured a place at St. Joseph’s Convent in St. George’s. She completed her Senior Cambridge Examinations in 1946, at the age of 16. After this, she spent three years teaching at her alma mater. When she was 19, she was sent on a Leadership Training course at The University of the West Indies (UWI) in Mona, Jamaica where she got a “taste for UWI life”. Immediately, Jerome recognised that her career goal was to live “with ideas within her head, 24 hours a day.”

In 1955, Jerome received a scholarship to Howard University in Washington DC in the United States, where she studied to become a dietician. Not content to limit her focus solely to a major, she majored in Nutrition and Dietetics and minored in Chemistry, completing her BSc in 1960. She continued this pattern when she obtained her Master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1962, choosing Experimental Foods and Human Nutrition as her major and obtaining a minor in Microbiology. Her doctorate, however, would be different in a fundamental and important way.

Jerome began her doctorate in Human Nutrition in 1966, with a minor in Anthropology but before long, she came to realise that anthropology lacked a sub-field for studying the impact of food habits on cultures. She was convinced that such a field would be vital in assessing the impacts of different lifestyles on nutrition and vice versa. This revelation led to the merging of the biological science of Nutrition with the social science of Anthropology and the creation of a new discipline: Nutritional Anthropology.

After completing her post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Milwaukee, Dr Jerome joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Kansas as a Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health in 1967. She studied food consumption patterns in the households of African-Americans and Grenadians of African descent, the influence of television advertising on the food selection of pre-schoolers, the relationship between food intake and human performance in an Egyptian village over a seven year period, the dietary practices of ambulatory cancer patients and the effect of life-changing factors on individuals’ diet patterns. In 1980, Dr Jerome published a book entitled Nutritional Anthropology: Contemporary Approaches to Diet and Culture. During her tenure at the University, she served as the Director of the Office of Nutrition of the Bureau of Science and Technology and Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) between 1988 and 1991. In these capacities, she initiated numerous nutrition programmes worldwide.

Because of her expertise in culture, human nutrition and health, Dr Jerome served on numerous national and international boards and committees. She was elected President of the Association for Women in Development (now known as the Association for Women’s Rights in Development) between 1990 and 1991 and presided over the Board of Directors between 1991 and 1993. She was also President of Solar Cookers International, which was responsible for introducing solar cookers to refugee camps and other poverty stricken areas in the African continent, thereby promoting the use of a free energy source and eliminating the need for the wastage of scarce, expensive fuel. She was also a member of the board of the Child Health Foundation, a charity which is dedicated to improving and saving children’s lives using inexpensive but effective methods.

Although she retired in 1996, Dr Jerome continues her lifelong effort to improve people’s lives and to “leave the world a better place.” According to Jerome, the only way to achieve this is to give until she can give no more. Although she is a naturalised citizen of the United States, she remains loyal to her beloved homeland of Grenada. In 1998, she sponsored the founding of the Dr Norge W Jerome Grenada Teachers Awards programme, which honours four teachers annually, presenting them with a prize for perpetuating the ideals of Grenada’s earliest education legends. Presently, she is actively involved in a project for the Main Library in Grenada to provide necessary resources to students, teachers and the general public.

For her numerous contributions to society, the Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health honoured her by introducing the annual Norge W Jerome Preventative Excellence Award, which is given to graduating minority medical students. She has also appeared on numerous radio programmes and television features throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, including NBC’s Not for Women Only with Barbara Walters.

In her spare time, Dr Jerome enjoys water exercise, gardening and reading. She advises young people to maintain creativity, foster innovation, be themselves and realise their dreams. She encourages Caribbean people to believe in themselves, help others and embrace change by blending old traditions and new ideas.

Dr. Norge Jerome
- Nutritional Anthropologist

Awards and Fellowships:

Dr. Norge Jerome - Nutritional Anthropologist

Awards and Fellowships:

Dr. Norge Jerome
- Nutritional Anthropologist