About Us


Caroline Apovian, M.D. is the Associate Director of the DASH for Health™ Program. She is the Director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center and is a leader in the medical weight loss field. Caroline is a nationally and internationally known nutrition and obesity clinician and clinical scientist who has published over 100 original papers, editorials, abstracts, chapters and books during her career. In her 10 years at Boston Medical Center she has researched many different topics including obesity as an inflammatory state and novel interventions for obesity including macronutrient content of the diet. In her free time she enjoys competitive swimming, running and biking. She is a former amateur triathlete, and still enjoys a race or two.

Diana Cullum-Dugan, RD, LD is a registered dietitian with experience in corporate health promotion, weight management, and physical fitness. She has taught aerobics for 15 years and enjoys a vegetarian lifestyle. She promotes a wholesome, natural, unprocessed diet and lots and lots of purposeful activity. One of her favorite things to do is encourage others to be the very best they can be in all they do. This is why her chosen career(s) are so important to her she gets to do this every day!.

Tom Moore, MD is the Director of DASH for Health™ Program and its creator. He is Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at Boston University School of Medicine. He was the chairman of the original research study that developed the DASH Diet and proved it to be so effective in lowering blood pressure. He has studied the blood pressure effects of foods and salt intake for over 20 years, and has authored over 100 scientific papers and book chapters, including the very popular book *The DASH Diet for Hypertension*. He was formerly a faculty member Harvard Medical School and was Executive Medical Director with Merck and Co. Tom lives outside of Boston with his family. He enjoys biking, tennis and golf.


Pao-Hwa Lin, PhD is a faculty member at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. She was the lead dietitian in the original DASH Diet study. She has continued to study the health benefits of the DASH Diet through the development and implementation of the DASH, DASH-Sodium and PREMIER trials. She is happily married, and has three daughters age 4, 9 and 12. She enjoys reading, walking and just doing nothing sometimes.

Megan Murphy, MPH the the Program Manager of DASH for Health™. She received a Masters Degree from the Boston University School of Public Health where she focused her studies on how to help people adopt healthier behaviors, especially diet and exercise. She enjoys walking with her two young children, reading and travel.

Kate M. Gilbert, MA joined the DASH Team in January of 2007 as the Web Content Manager. She received a Masters Degree in Health Communication at Emerson College where she focused her studies on consumer health education through new media. Kate is a web designer and web marketing consultant for health-related businesses and organizations. She enjoys hiking, camping, traveling and trying new recipes.

Jerry Coffman, MS is the Associate Director of the Data Coordinating Center at the Boston University School of Public Health. He is a statistician by training whose interests have grown to include web design and database development. Prior to Boston University, he worked at the University of Pittsburgh, and has accumulated over 20 years of experience. Jerry enjoys a daily swim and an occasional bike ride around the Charles River.

Mark Jenkins is a professional writer. He helped compose much of the educational content for this program. He has been a writer on several top health books, including THE DASH DIET FOR HYPERTENSION (Simon & Schuster, 2002), which he wrote along with Tom Moore, Lin Pao-Hwa, and Laura Svetkey (other members of our DASH for Health^TM team). In addition to writing books on health, Mark is a paid consultant in the Harvard Medical School system. Mark has also written for such publications as varied as Rolling Stone and the Wall Street Journal, and also wrote and presented on-air humor commentaries on American Public Radio. When hes not at his computer Mark is likely to be found biking, hiking, or bodysurfing where he lives on the island of Marthas Vineyard.