KIN Postdoctoral Fellows Please meet our KIN Postdoctoral Fellows who are completing training and partnering with community researchers to advance food justice solutions locally in San Diego county. 2025-2027Nicole Karongo (she/her), PhD, MPH, RDN, LDN LinkedIn CVDr. Nicole Karongo's work sits at the intersection of community-driven research, culturally responsive nutrition care, and food justice. Nicole's primary research examines dietary acculturation and cardiometabolic health among East African immigrants in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood, carried out through the HAWAASH2 study in long-standing partnership with UWEAST (United Women of East Africa Support Team). This work uses a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to co-design research tools, test culturally tailored nutrition interventions, and develop frameworks, including the DANIA Framework (Dietary Acculturation of African Immigrants in America), that center community knowledge and lived experience alongside academic evidence. Through KIN Methods, Nicole provides methods technical assistance to community organizations conducting applied health equity and nutrition work across San Diego. Nicole is also developing Regents Dietitian Services, a home-based nutrition care and health promotion model grounded in food justice principles. This practice is designed to expand access to culturally responsive nutrition counseling for people who face barriers to in-person care. Her career goals include organizational leadership in equity-centered health and nutrition systems, community-engaged research, and building care models that prioritize dignity, food autonomy, and cultural relevance. Academic mentor: Dr. Cheryl Anderson, Professor and Dean, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, UC San Diego Community mentors: Dan Weidenbenner, Executive Director of Mill Village Ministries and Andre Best, CEO and Founder of Best Care, MNClare Viglione (she/her), PhD, MPH, RD LinkedIn CVDr. Clare Viglione is a health services researcher and licensed clinical dietitian whose program of research advances implementation science and practice-based research to strengthen maternal, child, and family health systems. Her work examines mechanisms of child resilience and tests family-centered primary care interventions using pragmatic and hybrid effectiveness–implementation designs within multi-site networks. Through community-engaged implementation research in safety-net settings, her scholarship generates transferable, real-world evidence to improve health systems for children and families and position relational health as foundational infrastructure for health equity. In addition to her role with KIN, Clare is the Director of the GROW.V.BABY Practice-Based Research Network at Boston Medical Center.Academic mentor: Dr. Eric Hekler, Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science and Design Lab, UC San DiegoCommunity mentor: Pradeep Gidwani, Healthy Development Services and First Steps 2026-2028Coming soon!
