Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition
Associate Dean for Global Health, School of Public Health
Associate Director, Institute of Global Health & Infectious Diseases
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:
Email: pbentley@unc.edu
Website: http://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/margaret-bentley-phd/

Research Interests & Goals:
Dr. Bentley received her MA and PhD degrees in Medical Anthropology from the University of Connecticut. From 1985-98 she was on faculty in International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Since 1998 she has been on faculty at the University of North Carolina, where she has held several leadership roles. Dr. Bentley’s research focuses on women and infant’s nutrition, infant and young child feeding, behavioral research on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and community-based interventions for nutrition and health. She has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and the application of these for program development and evaluation. Dr. Bentley also directs a five year, longitudinal intervention study to examine risk factors for the development of pediatric obesity in North Carolina. She is also Principal Investigator of a community-based intervention to improve child growth and development in Andhra Pradesh, India. She is an Investigator on an intervention to decrease maternal to child transmission of HIV during breastfeeding in Malawi and is Principal Investigator of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant for analyses of nutrition data. The Malawi study, BAN (Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition) has enrolled nearly 2500 HIV positive mothers and their infants in a longitudinal study to assess whether ARV drugs given to mothers or infants while exclusive breastfeeding for 0-6 months reduces transmission of HIV through breastmilk.

Dr. Bentley is a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-US Joint Working Group on Maternal and Child Health and is a member of the ASPH Global Health Committee. She also holds membership in the American Institute of Nutrition, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the American Public Health Association. She is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. In 2005 she was named Paul G. Rogers Ambassador for Global Health. She is the founding Chair of the Board of Directors of the Triangle Global Health Consortium (www.triangleglobalhealth.org).