Meet our champion

Cathy W. Levenson, Ph.D. is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine, where she serves as director for the Foundations of Medicine, Gastrointestinal System and Foundations of Nutrition courses taught in the medical and physician assistant programs.

After completing a B.A. in Neurobiology at the University of Virginia, Levenson earned a master’s degree in Human Nutrition from Florida State University and a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition and Nutritional Biology from the University of Chicago. Before her faculty appointment at FSU, she was a research associate in the lab of renowned nutritional biochemist Robert Cousins at the University of Florida.

Her research interests include understanding the nutritionally regulated cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for neuronal stem cell proliferation, differentiation and survival, and how this information can be used to treat the widespread public health problems of depression and anxiety that are associated with traumatic brain injury.