Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine, 1896-1989

Hazel Katherine Stiebeling (1896-1989) became the head of USDA’s Section of Food Economics in 1930. During her career, she pioneered the application of sample survey methods to national nutrition problems in order to understand the food habits of population groups. In the 1930s, she helped devise an emergency plan for feeding the victims of severe droughts in the southern United States. Her research and interest in diet deficiencies in the United States led to the development of school lunch programs, as well as programs promoting the increased consumption of milk, fresh fruit, and green vegetables.

Dr. Stiebeling became Chief of USDA’s Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics in 1944. She served as Director of Home Economics Research from 1953 to 1957, then as Director of the Institute of Home Economics from 1957 to 1961. She was the Deputy Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service from 1961 until her retirement in 1963.

The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout her career, Dr. Stiebeling earned bachelor’s (1919) and master’s degrees (1924) in nutrition from Columbia University Teachers’ College. She completed her Ph.D. in chemistry at Columbia in 1928.

Hazel Katherine Stiebeling (1896–1989) was an American nutritionist who pioneered the development of USDA programs for nutrition including USDA daily dietary allowances of vitamins and minerals. Stiebeling was born in Haskins, Ohio in 1896, After high school, Stiebeling enrolled in a two year program in domestic science at Skidmore College. Stiebeling was employed for three years as a schoolteacher and then she entered the Columbia University Teachers' College where she was an assistant in Foods and Nutrition under Professor Mary Swartz Rose. She graduated with a BS in 1919, and then completed an MA in nutrition in 1924. Stiebeling became a research fellow under Dr. Henry Sherman at the Graduate School of Columbia University after receiving her MA. She was awarded a PhD in chemistry in 1928. Her thesis was on a method for studying the content of vitamins A and D in tissues. In 1930, after graduation from the PhD program, she was hired as Head of the new Section on Food Economics at the USDA Bureau of Home Economics