Independent Expert Group

Dr Mariachiara Di Cesare leads the GNR data update working group. Dr Di Cesare is Professor of Population Studies & Global Health and Director of the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on the epidemiology and public health of malnutrition and the prevention of risk factors for cardiovascular mortality. The results of Chiara’s research on global trends in obesity are officially recognised and cited by the World Health Organisation. As a member of the World Heart Federation 2018 Emerging Leaders cohort, Chiara has led the successful application to the WHO Essential Medicine List for the inclusion of non-vitamin K anticoagulants for the treatment of atrial fibrillation to prevent stroke.

Bridget Fenn is an epidemiologist (MSc epidemiology, LSHTM) with a background in nutrition (MSc nutrition, King’s College London). She has 25 years’ experience in the development and humanitarian sectors, working for national and international agencies in operational, political and academic capacities on child and maternal nutrition and health and environmental projects. She is a consultant in nutrition epidemiology and research for the Multi-Donor-Action Capacity 4 Nutrition (C4N) initiative. In this role, she is responsible for providing guidance on research methods and current scientific knowledge to identify emerging innovative approaches and supporting the European Commission delegations on the design of country-level research and evaluations. She has also worked with the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) for over eight years, including leading research programmes in Niger and Pakistan, and is currently working with the ENN as a nutrition epidemiology advisor, supporting activities on undernutrition, data quality, gender and agriculture, climate change and food systems.

Dr Daniel Hoffman received his PhD in nutritional biochemistry and physiology from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, US, before completing postdoctoral training at Columbia University, US. He is now Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, US. Dr Hoffman's specific areas of expertise are energy metabolism, body composition and epidemiology. He directs an international nutrition research programme to better understand the relationship between poor growth in childhood and the development of chronic diseases in adulthood, and is director of the Center for Childhood Nutrition Research at the New Jersey Institute for Food Nutrition and Health, US. An author of numerous papers and chapters on energy metabolism, body composition and pediatric nutrition, Dr Hoffman is also Associate Editor of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nutrition.

Dr Eileen Kennedy is Professor and former Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, US. Her research focuses on assessing the health, nutrition, diet and food security impacts of policies and programmes, nutrient density and diet diversity, agriculture nutrition linkages and food systems. She was a member of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security from 2015 to 2019, and in that capacity oversaw the development of the Nutrition and Food Systems report. She was a member of the UNSCN Advisory Group on Nutrition, founded and was the first Executive Director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, and created the Healthy Eating Index. In 2018, Dr Kennedy was inducted as a Research Fellow into the American Society for Nutrition, the highest honour of the association.

Professor Uma Koirala PhD has over 30 years’ experience in university teaching and research across nutrition, food security, and gender and social inclusion. She is a postgraduate scholar of Ghent University, Belgium, in food science and nutrition management planning. Professor Koirala has extensive local and international experience of policy formation and strategic planning management related to health, nutrition and food security, risk management and human development – in particular, women. She is a technical committee member of the Nutrition and Food Security Coordination Committee under the Nepalese government’s National Planning Commission; a member of the executive committee for the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement; and leader of the Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition, Nepal. Professor Koirala has extensive experience working in infant and child nutrition, adolescent nutrition, and gender and social inclusion with the Government of Nepal, CEDAW, UNESCO, UNDP, USAID, Save the Children, and other stakeholders.

Dr Jacqueline Kung’u is a research scientist of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Nutrition Research Program at the African Population and Health Research Center. Previously, she served at Nutrition International, where she was 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 the 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 the integration of scientific knowledge and programmatic guidance in the design of contextual approaches for maternal, child and adolescent nutrition programmes.

Dr Shuhei Nomura is an epidemiologist and biostatistician currently serving as a Professor at Keio University Global Research Institute in Japan. His research focuses on global health policy, disease burden measurement, nutrition policy, and disaster health risk management. Dr Nomura has extensive experience collaborating with international organizations, including WHO and the Gates Foundation. He is a member of the Global Burden of Disease Scientific Council and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI). With over 240 peer-reviewed publications, he contributes significantly to evidence-based health policy development while bridging research and practice to strengthen health systems globally.

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, US. She has more than 25 years’ 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, Dr Osendarp 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 in nutrition, food systems, health and economics who are analysing the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on malnutrition. Dr Osendarp is an author or co-author of more than 65 peer-reviewed publications, scientific publications, and book chapters. Her specific areas of expertise are child undernutrition, micronutrients and fortified foods.

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.

Dr Marco Springmann is a Senior Researcher in Environmental Sustainability and Public Health at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK, where he leads the Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems Group. He is interested in the health, environmental and economic dimensions of global food systems. He uses systems models to provide quantitative estimates on food-related questions.

Dr Wu leads the GNR nutrition accountability framework working group. Dr Jason Wu is Associate Professor and Head of the Nutrition Science Program at the George Institute for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. Throughout his career, the goal of his research programme has been to generate knowledge about nutritional risks and define novel interventions that can influence policies and practices to improve diets and alleviate the diet-related disease burden. His research has been published in leading medical and nutrition journals, including The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, The British Medical Journal, Circulation, and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Dr Wu’s specific areas of expertise include nutrition epidemiology, biostatistics and food policy.