Juston Jaco

Juston Jaco is a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UC San Diego who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. His academic career began at the University of Michigan, where he graduated with highest honors in environmental science from the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Juston then went on to serve three years as an AmeriCorps service member where he built gardens in outdoor urban school environments, transforming vacant concrete patches into fully functioning “living lab” classrooms across Northern California. It was during this time he became passionate about the intersection between the environment and nutrition and its impact on human and planetary health. Believing in the concept of “food as medicine”, Juston obtained both a Master of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University, specializing in global health, nutrition innovation, and law and policy. Complementing his scholastic achievements, Juston gained one-on-one patient experience through his nutrition residency appointment at the Sandy Hook Clinic in Newtown, Connecticut under the direct supervision of Kara Fitzgerald, one of the nation’s leading naturopathic physicians. Juston is currently researching proactive and progressive solutions that go beyond pharmacy and surgery—all too common in the 21st century medical landscape—in the prestigious lab of Ajit Varki at UC San Diego.