Antonia Demas

Biography:

Antonia Demas is the founder and president of the nonprofit Food Studies Institute. She has been engaged in food literacy education since the early 1970’s and is the author of the award-winning curriculum Food is Elementary which teaches people of all backgrounds and ages about food, nutrition, cooking, gardening and ecology through hands-on experiential, sensory education. She has a master’s and Ph.D. from Cornell University and conducts research to demonstrate that early and ongoing education is essential to promote food literacy as a solution to global health and environmental issues including diet -related diseases and climate change. Dr. Demas has been a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the Medical School at the University of Illinois, Rockford, and the University of Kentucky School of Public Health, Louisville.