Independent Expert Group

Dr Jacqueline Kung’u is a nutrition scientist working at the interface of research, policy and programmes. She is the Regional Advisor for Research and Evaluation in Africa at Nutrition International. Over the 10 years she has been in this role, she has been the research lead in multi-stakeholder and multi-country health systems strengthening projects, national and subnational surveys, implementation research to improve impact, and programme monitoring and evaluation. Dr Kung'u has also engaged in dissemination of evidence and translation of research to policy. She provides technical and advisory services at national, regional and global levels. She has a PhD in international nutrition (minors in epidemiology and immunology) from Cornell University, US, an MSc in applied human nutrition and a BSc. in food science and technology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Dr Kung’u’s specific area of expertise is in integrating scientific knowledge and programmatic guidance to the design of contextual approaches for maternal, child and adolescent nutrition programmes.

Dr Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School. He holds a BS in biological sciences from Stanford University, an MD from Columbia University, an MPH from the University of Washington and a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard. Prior to his appointment as Dean at Tufts in 2014, he spent a decade at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Mozaffarian has authored more than 400 scientific publications on subjects such as dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,and has served in numerous advisory roles. Thomson Reuters has named him one of the world’s most influential scientific minds.

Dr Shuhei Nomura is Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Keio University School of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine. Dr Nomura is currently engaged in the Global Burden of Diseases Study, acting as the Japanese focal point. The study aims to characterise health risk factors and associated disease burden on a global and national/subnational scale. Dr Nomura is also actively involved in the national and local government's efforts to combat Covid-19 in Japan, analysing a combination of government survey statistics and private sector data to provide critical intelligence and evidence on the spread of infection for the planning of countermeasures. Dr Nomura’s specific areas of expertise include biostatistics, global health policy, official development assistance, comparative risk assessment, and disaster risk management.

Dr Saskia Osendarp is the Executive Director of the Micronutrient Forum, an international expert organisation and knowledge broker on micronutrient malnutrition based in Washington DC. She has more than 25 years of experience in international nutrition research, in both the public and private sectors, and is Visiting Associate Professor of Nutrition and Health at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She lived and worked for seven years at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and spent 10 years at Unilever as Lead Scientist in micronutrients and child nutrition. Before joining the Micronutrient Forum, she worked as an independent consultant for international NGOs and research institutes. She recently co-founded, and is currently co-facilitating, the Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium, a collaboration of experts working in nutrition, food systems, health and economics, analysing the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on malnutrition. Dr Osendarp’s specific areas of expertise are child undernutrition, micronutrients and fortified foods.

Dr Cynthia Rosenzweig is Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she heads the Climate Impacts Group, which investigates the interactions of climate on systems and sectors important to human well-being. She is co-founder of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). She is now spearheading the AgMIP-coordinated global and regional assessments of the effects of climate change on the food system, including on nutrition, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report. Dr Rosenzweig is lead author on the food security chapter of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land.

Dr Saha is a Technical Officer in the Nutrition and Food Safety Department of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He leads the joint WHO-UNICEF Technical Expert Advisory group on nutrition Monitoring (TEAM), which advises WHO and UNICEF on global nutrition monitoring efforts. He has expertise in the design, monitoring and evaluation of large-scale nutrition programmes, with a focus on improving maternal and child nutrition. Dr Saha has extensive research experience in consequences of household food insecurity on the feeding and growth of infants and young children in low-income settings. He also works on the development of indicators and operational guidance to provide technical assistance to strengthen nutrition information systems in WHO member states. Dr Saha is an MD with a PhD in international nutrition from Cornell University, USA, an M.Sc. in nutrition from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and an MPH from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium.

Stanley Zlotkin is a Professor of Paediatrics, Public Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute. He received his MD degree from McMaster University in Canada, his fellowship training in Paediatrics at McGill University and his PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto. In the late 1990s Dr Zlotkin led the development of ‘home fortification’ with micronutrient powders. By partnering with UN agencies over the past two decades, essential minerals and vitamins have been distributed to millions of young children globally for the control of nutritional anaemia. Dr Zlotkin was appointed as the inaugural Chief of Global Child Health at SickKids in 2012. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 2007 for his contributions to improving the lives of children. His expertise is in preventing malnutrition in children, and he has authored more than 150 publications on this subject.