Kaumudi Joshipura

Kaumudi Jinraj Joshipura is an Indian dentist-scientist, biostatistician, and epidemiologist. She is the NIH endowed chair and director of the center for clinical research and health promotion at University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. She is a professor in the University of Puerto Rico School of Dental Medicine.

Joshipura was born in Mumbai, India and raised in Tanzania and Nigeria. Her father was a medical doctor who taught at universities outside of India. She earned a bachelor of dental surgery from University of Mumbai in 1982. She completed a residency in periodontology from 1982 to 1983 at Nair Hospital Dental College [Wikidata]. Joshipura worked as a dental surgeon from 1983 to 1984 in a clinic in Mumbai. She was a dental surgeon at St. Beatrice Hospital in Nigeria from 1985 to 1988. Joshipura came to the United States in 1988. Joshipura earned a M.S. in biostatistics from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1989. She worked as a staff associate in biostatistics at The Forsyth Institute from 1989 to 1992. Joshipura was a clinical instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) from 1992 to 1993. As a postdoctoral dentist scientist, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Oral Health, Policy, and Epidemiology (OHPE) at HSDM from, 1993 to 1995. In 1995, Joshipura completed a certificate in dental public health at HSDM and a Sc.D. in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her dissertation was titled Oral health, nutrition, and coronary heart disease.

From 1996 to 2002, Joshipura was an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. She was an associate professor in HSDM from 2002 to 2005. She joined the faculty at University of Puerto Rico School of Dental Medicine in 2005. She is the NIH Endowed Chair, professor, and the director of the center for clinical research and health promotion at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus and an adjunct professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.

Research

Joshipura researches lifestyle and other risk factors for cardio-metabolic conditions, and the interrelationships of microbial, dietary, and inflammatory mediators. She researched the relationship between periodontists and coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and peripheral artery disease. Joshipura is the principal investigator for several NIH funded projects including SOALS: San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study and PEARLS: Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle improvement Study.

Joshipura was elected fellow of the International College of Nutrition in 2005.