Member Enrichment

We take pride in offering enrichment activities that are relevant and bring value to not only to our local NORC members and communities but also those within the other 10 NORCs around the country.

Examples of our recent activities include:

Trans-NORC Training Course on Nutrition and Obesity Methods:  With the support of an administrative supplement, in 2019, we hosted the inaugural Pennington-Louisiana NORC Training in Obesity and Nutrition methods course. Open to postdocs and ESIs at all NORC’s, participants visited Pennington Biomedical for didactic classes and hands-on training encounters. Since that time, we held an additional training course in April 2022, which hosted 28 individuals who over the course of 2.5 days who attended modules on body composition, carbohydrate metabolism including euglycemic, hyperinsulinemic clamp, exercise energy expenditure, and energy metabolism including metabolic chamber. Finally, in September 2024 we received an R25 (R25DK137743) to continue hosting this training course, and in January 2025 held the course with 26 participants. The next training course on “Nutrition & Obesity Research Methods” will be held at Pennington Biomedical October 6-9, 2025.

Obesity Day: We hold an annual NORC Day with our partner institutions across the state. To date, these have occurred in person at the University Medical Center (UMC) in New Orleans or virtually using Zoom. The initial NORC Day (2020) included 53 attendees from Pennington Biomedical, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO), and Tulane University and thus the event offered a conduit for scientific exchange between members of the NORC community. These half-day events feature a welcome from the NORC Director, presentations from each Core Director, presentations on NORC member research and an overall discussion. These events have received high acclaim from attendees, and it has become an annual Enrichment Core activity. In 2025, we expanded the reach of the NORC Day by hosting a virtual Zoom meeting which included faculty from LSUHSC-NO, Tulane University, Xavier University, and LSUHSC-Shreveport (May 19, 2025).