Ohio Northern University will host a lecture titled “Battling Hidden Hunger” by Dr. Sharon A. Norton, director of development for the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, in the Freed Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Norton’s presentation is part of the Keiser Distinguished Lectureship in Life Sciences program, named in honor of Terry D. Keiser, an ONU alumnus and professor of biological sciences. The Keiser Distinguished Lectureship in Life Sciences brings nationally prominent life sciences scholars to ONU’s campus each year to lecture and interact with students for a week. The Keiser Lectureship was the first program of its kind at Ohio Northern.

For more than 23 years, Norton has focused on nutrition delivery science, including the creation of methodologies to define strategy, develop programming, and launch successful products and projects in the packaged goods, agricultural and nonprofit sectors. Her work has implemented a number of programs to combat global childhood hunger and under-nutrition and to advance a greater social awareness in these issues domestically and internationally.

In 2007, Norton joined the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, where she oversees the development of formative research programs to promote nutrition among infants, toddlers and preschool-age children in Guatemala and El Salvador, as well as educational support for their caregivers. Norton also was instrumental in creating the institute’s Revolution Hunger initiative in 2010, which builds awareness of global hunger issues among high school students.

Norton earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and her Ph.D. in monogastric nutrition from Oklahoma State University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the USDA-ARS.