Doug Taren, PhD serves as Public Health faculty for AZLEND. Dr. Taren was a WIC nutritionist for the Navajo Nation providing nutritional services to women, infants, and children. His clinic actively worked with the local school district to support children with special needs. Dr. Taren has led a training program funded by NIH to integrate nutrition and cancer prevention into the UA medical curriculum and resulted in five published nutrition handbooks for clinical rotations and residents. He was also the PI for the HRSA MCH Certificate program that used both face-to-face and web conferences for training. This program was funded twice by HRSA and now the College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) has its third MCH Certificate program. He also was the Co-PI on a HRSA funded distance learning grant. This grant developed 3 web-based courses on substance abuse and its effect on women and children with an emphasis on fetal alcohol syndrome and effects. Dr. Taren was the director of the HRSA funded School of Public Health MCH Training program. This program has now been refunded for another five years. His research has focused on improving pregnancy outcomes and child health with a focus on the prevention of preterm births and effectiveness studies to improve vitamin A status in low income countries. He has worked on measuring the energy expenditure of children with cerebral palsy and to assess deaf children for Usher Syndrome using the Night Vision Threshold Test. Dr. Taren is currently the Co-PI for the External Evaluation for Arizona's First Things First Program, a statewide program to improve the school readiness of children before they enter kindergarten. He is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of MEZCOPH which was recently funded by HRSA as a Public Health Training Center.
