While working on her PhD in nutritional science at Tufts University in 1991, Sahyoun took off for a year in Iraq as a public health specialist, an experience she considers one of the most fulfilling of her professional career. “It was highly gratifying to feel that I contributed in establishing health care relief programs all over the country,” she explained.

Although her bachelor’s degree was in biology from the University of Massachusetts, Sahyoun was attracted to the interactive science-based aspect of nutrition when she took two courses on the subject at AUB while working as lab technician and instructor at AUBMC between 1974 and 1977. In 1979 she obtained her MS in nutrition from the University of Iowa.

At the University of Maryland, Sahyoun focuses on the relationship between diet, genetics, and environmental risk factors as well as their impact on nutritional status and on the development of chronic disease and mortality.

This year her research relates the dietary patterns of older Lebanese people to their health status in order to make recommendations and/or implement interventions.  She is also assessing the food security of segments of the Lebanese population.

During the fall, Sahyoun gave several lectures to AUB students, whom she finds “enthusiastic, energetic and interactive.” As well as mentoring a master’s student, Sahyoun is currently leading a graduate seminar and co-teaching a graduate course on community nutrition.

Sahyoun is married and has a twelve-year-old daughter. She enjoys hiking, planting trees, and walking by the sea. For her, Beirut is “wonderful for walking,” but she also likes playing tennis and swimming. Indoors, she listens to jazz and reads fiction and psychological thrillers, and is an advocate of “moderation, balance and variety.”