Barbara Kowalcyk, Ph.D., M.A., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and the Director of the Food Policy Institute at George Washington University's (GW's) Milken Institute School of Public Health. She also has an appointment in the U.S. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and is a fellow with the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness.

Dr. Kowalcyk's research spans a range of topics related to food safety and infectious foodborne disease, and their intersection with nutrition security. She has extensively used epidemiologic methods, data analytics, and risk analysis to assess food safety risks and potential intervention strategies in both the U.S. and the Global South. Prior to joining GW in 2023, Dr. Kowalcyk was faculty at Ohio State University with appointments in the Department of Food Science and Technology and the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and directed the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention (CFI), a nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2006. Prior to joining OSU, she was a senior food safety and public health scientist at RTI International and a research assistant professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Science at North Carolina State University.