Emerald Izuakor

Emerald Izuakor is currently a first year masters student pursuing her MPH in Global Health at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. She first joined the Global Food Research program for the inaugural 2022 FERN summer fellowship as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. She graduated in May 2025 with majors in nutrition and Hispanic linguistics. She is excited to return as a Graduate Research Assistant!

She has been passionate about food and nutrition from an early age and is interested in the intersectionality of food, culture, nutrition, and medicine. Some of Emerald’s previous food related experiences include writing a research paper for the World Food Prize exploring the environmental plight Niger Delta communities due to unregulated oil extraction, a Wallace Carver Fellowship with the USDA Farmers Market in Washington DC, working with Vecinos in Western North Carolina as a Community Outreach Intern and a UNC Robinson Fellowship in Spain exploring the relationship between food, migration, agriculture and poetry. These programs furthered her interest in understanding the international nature of food systems.

My family’s holiday favorites are … Nigerian Meat Pies and Goat Meat Pepper Soup.

My favorite combination of food and drink is … Tacos and Piña Jarritos.

My favorite foods for summer are… Muscadine grapes, rosewater lemonade, and watermelon.

Favorite quote related to food: “’Go on, have a pasty,’ said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry’s pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).” — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.