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About Sandra
Sandra Mooney, PhD, serves as an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also holds a faculty position at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis. She earned her PhD in Anatomy and Structural Biology from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1997, following a BSc (Honours) in Neuroscience, Second Class Division I, from the same institution in 1991. Dr. Mooney's career trajectory includes progressive roles at SUNY Upstate Medical University in the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, from Research Scientist (2000–2001) and Research Assistant Professor (2001–2005) to Assistant Professor (2005–2011). Subsequently, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, she advanced to Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Pediatrics (2015–2018), serving as Co-Director of the Neonatology Program (2012–2017) and Regular Member of the Graduate Program in Life Sciences (2014–2018). She joined UNC Chapel Hill in 2018.
Dr. Mooney's research employs mouse models to investigate fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), elucidating the effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on neurodevelopment, behavior, and metabolism across age- and sex-specific outcomes. Her studies explore nutritional interventions, such as choline and omega-3 fatty acids, to ameliorate alcohol-induced deficits, alongside genetic and nutritional factors influencing vulnerability or resistance to these effects. Selected publications include the chapter 'Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder' in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Comprehensive Developmental Neuroscience (Elsevier, 2020, with A.H. Mahnke and R.C. Miranda); 'Adverse Exposures to the Fetus and Neonate' in Fanaroff and Martin's Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, 11th Edition (2020, with A.J. Falck and C.F. Bearer) and 10th Edition (2015); 'Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: Targeted effects of ethanol on cell proliferation and survival' in Neural Circuit Development and Function in the Healthy and Diseased Brain, Comprehensive Developmental Neuroscience (Elsevier, 2013, with P.J. Lein and M.W. Miller); and 'Intracellular events in ethanol-induced neuronal death' and 'Intracellular pathways of neuronal death' in Brain Development: Normal Processes and the Effects of Alcohol and Nicotine (Oxford University Press, 2006, with M.W. Miller and G.I. Henderson). Honors include University of Otago Postgraduate Scholarships (1994, 1996), Divisional Teaching Assistantship (1995), and multiple travel awards (1992–1994, 2017), as well as a nomination for the Clinical Research Forum’s 2014 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards (2013). Her work informs strategies to mitigate prenatal alcohol damage through targeted nutrition.
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