Dr. Christine Blake, PhD, RD (Principle Investigator) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health. She is an international expert on food choice who has conducted both qualitative and quantitative studies on the drivers of food choice in diverse populations. Her work has primarily focused on contextual and cognitive factors that drive food choice with an emphasis on people and organizations that shape these behaviors in families and among children. Dr. Blake has experience conducting research in Senegal and as doctoral committee member to students working on research projects in developing countries in Asia and Latin America. She is an affiliate member of the USC Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, serves on the Center Steering Committee, and participates in its competitive grants program.
Dr. Edward Frongillo is a Professor in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health. Dr. Frongillo is a global expert on household and individual food insecurity of adults and children and on infant and young child feeding, growth, and nutrition. He has extensive experience conducting mixed qualitative and quantitative evaluation and research in many countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. He co-led the team that developed the set of family care indictors being used globally in the past three rounds of the UNICEF Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys, and has designed with others several large and influential studies including the World Health Organization Multicentre Growth Reference Study, The World Bank Mainstreaming Nutrition Initiative, and the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions in Matlab study of food and multiple micronutrient supplementation in Bangladesh. Dr. Frongillo has been an active member of the technical advisory group of the Gates-funded Alive & Thrive program, which funded a dozen competitive grants to researchers primarily in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has extensive experience in providing training and technical assistance to researchers in developing countries.
Shilpa Vimalananda, MPH
Program Coordinator
Shilpa Vimalananda has experience in applying evaluation and research methodologies as a William J. Clinton Fellow for Service through the American India Foundation, and as a research assistant and educator on nutrition projects in Boston and multiple areas in India.