Director of Communications
Jody Engel was named Director of Communications of the ODP in January 2013 after serving as the ODP’s Acting Director of Communications in 2012. Ms. Engel provides strategic communication advice to the ODP Director, who also serves as the NIH Associate Director for Prevention. Ms. Engel is the liaison for communications with the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services. She leads a team responsible for all communication and media activities for the ODP. She directs the design, execution, and evaluation of the ODP public affairs, health information, and web and social media programs with the overall goal of communicating the importance and value of prevention research, disseminating prevention research resources and programs, and building and enhancing relationships with key stakeholders.
From 2006 to 2013, Ms. Engel served as a Nutritionist and the Director of Mobile and Social Media Communications in the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). Ms. Engel worked to advance efforts to provide reliable, science-based information on dietary supplements. She initiated and led the ODS effort to develop a free ODS mobile app called My Dietary Supplements, or MyDS, to give consumers a convenient way to learn about dietary supplements and track the products they take. At the time, MyDS was one of the first mobile apps developed from within the federal government. Ms. Engel assisted many other federal government offices with their mobile app development projects.
Ms. Engel, a registered dietitian, earned a master’s degree from Tulane University in applied social research and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in dietetics. She is a graduate of the NIH Senior Leadership Program and served as chair for the NIH Staff Training in Extramural Programs (STEP) committee. Ms. Engel has been recognized with multiple Honor Awards by the NIH Office of the Director.