About

Mary M. Flynn, PhD, RD, LDN developed this website starting in October 2015.  She is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Clinical) at Brown University and teaches courses in nutrition at Brown, and lectures on nutrition in the Albert Medical School.  She has been a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital (Providence, RI) since 1984.  Her main research interest is how food can be used as medicine and her main food of interest is extra virgin olive oil, which she has been researching since 1998.  ​In 2013, she founded The Olive Oil Health Initiative of The Miriam Hospital at Brown University that has a mission of educating the public and medical community on the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.  In 1999, she developed a plant-based, olive oil diet that she has tested for weight loss and improvement in clinical biomarkers for chronic disease in women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer; in men with prostate cancer; and to decrease food insecurity in low-income groups.  She worked with McAuley House, Providence, RI to develop the Healing Foods program, which has a goal of combating type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity and heart disease that disproportionately impacts those living in poverty.