Laura Chiavaroli, MSc, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Affiliate Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital

Dr. Laura Chiavaroli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and Affiliate Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. Her research program addresses the important implementation gap between guidelines-based nutrition therapy for cardiometabolic diseases and effective strategies to mobilize them, while also addressing the equity gap. She leads large interdisciplinary teams in the co-design and testing of innovative implementation strategies leveraging the use of digital tools and randomized trials to drive effective policies and programs related to dietary patterns for cardiometabolic disease across diverse communities.  A key contribution is the Portfolio Diet Program as a translation of clinical practice guidelines recommending the Portfolio Diet, endorsed by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. She is testing the Program in several clinical trials, one of which is the CHEAP trial, a large 7-year pragmatic randomized trial in 1,100 adults at high risk of cardiovascular disease.  She also tests new policy enhancements to support adherence and demonstrates novel applications of methods to improve assessments of social and gender determinants of health, to identify communities to target and provide evidence to drive inclusivity in guidelines and advance health equity. She is directly involved in guidelines development as Lead of the Nutrition Chapter for Diabetes Canada, co-chair and methodologist for the update of the Diabetes Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the European Association of the Study of Diabetes (EASD) clinical practice guidelines and a member of the Guideline Development Panel for the 3rd EASD guideline on Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes. She has authored over 100 publications and holds several grants, including multiple grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Her work has had a major impact on clinical practice guidelines for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and public health nutrition policy internationally (e.g. Canada, US, Europe, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, etc.). She was recently awarded the 2025 IAFNS Emerging Leader Award and the 2024 American Society for Nutrition Mead Johnson Award for outstanding research from a young investigator.