Jessica Escobar DeMarco, M.Sc., Ph.D., is an expert in nutrition and dietetics, global nutrition, and public health with over 25 years of experience working across academia, government, and global health and nutrition settings. 

Dr. Escobar DeMarco is  an  Assistant Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC. Roles include  teaching, mentoring, service, research, and scholarly activities. Her research focus is nutrition and food security across the life-course in the United States and globally. She seeks to advance the knowledge of the experiences of food insecurity and hunger among vulnerable individuals, improve measurement methods, and advance solutions.   

At the Alive & Thrive global nutrition initiative, managed by FHI 360, Dr. Escobar DeMarco contributed to joint efforts among the initiative and its strategic partners to complete research, system strengthening efforts to integrate maternal infant and young child nutrition services in existing governmental platforms, and document how system strengthening for nutrition works. Recent accomplishments include contributing to documenting the process of developing models of maternal nutrition interventions integrated into antenatal care services in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and India, and the effects of COVID-19 on the provision and use of health and nutrition services and on food security in South Asia. 

Before joining Alive & Thrive, Dr. Escobar DeMarco led a case study aimed at examining the mechanisms that determine the sustainability of food and nutrition security policies during presidential transitions. She also contributed to global health initiatives, research, and evaluation in public health and nutrition. Dr. Escobar DeMarco worked in El Salvador as a technical officer on nutrition for the United Nations World Food Programme and the Ministry of Health.