August 2022 – present Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
Teaching, mentoring, service, research, and scholarly activities.
2017 – July 2022 Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation Advisor, Alive & Thrive, FHI 360, Washington, DC, USA
Provided technical support for monitoring, learning, and evaluation of maternal, infant and young child nutrition programs. Supported South Asia and Southeast Asia portfolios for Alive & Thrive. Spearheaded Alive & Thrive’s work with its Stakeholder and Technical Advisory Group.
2017 Research Associate, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Developed grant applications on topics of research and evaluation in public nutrition and health. Supported the coordination of global health initiatives in the Arnold School of Public Health. Contributed to design and implement the evaluation of the Feeding America senior hunger program in 9 sites in the United States. Contributed to design the evaluation of Alive & Thrive’s India program.
2011 – 2016 Graduate Research Assistant, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Completed quantitative data analysis using Stata for the Food Insecurity and Women’s Interagency HIV baseline study. Completed qualitative data analysis using Nvivo for the Eat Smart Move More program of the South Carolina Department of Health, and USDA RIDGE program on experiences of hunger by children of Hispanic food insecure families in South Carolina.
2016 External Evaluator Consultant, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), India
Designed and implemented the external process evaluation, completed qualitative data collection, data analysis, and report: Partnerships and opportunities to strengthen and harmonize actions for nutrition in India (POSHAN) external evaluation.
2013 Consultant, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Guatemala
Completed research design and methods, quantitative data analysis using Stata, and contributed to report: Understanding program participation, compliance, and discontinuance in the context of a Title II food aid program in rural Guatemala.
2012 Nutritionist Consultant, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
Completed a food composition table update for the ProPAN 2.0 tool (Process for the Promotion of Child Feeding); a tool for infant and young child feeding programming.
2011 – 2017 Guest Lecturer, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Lectured on the topics: program evaluation, responding to global health challenges, graduate research seminar, global health and nutrition research, and qualitative research methods.
2011 Collaborator, Micronutrient Initiative, Canada
Completed qualitative data collection, and data preparation for analysis for an internal process evaluation.
2006 – 2010 Technical Officer on Nutrition, United Nations World Food Program, El Salvador
Provided technical assistance on nutrition and collaborated with United Nations’ technical teams: UNAIDS, food and nutrition security, school feeding, micronutrients, and impact evaluation of the nutritional component of emergency response operations. Provided institutional, technical and strategic guidance and coordinated the nutrition surveillance system update proposal: diagnosis, multisectoral collaboration, technical documents, online system for data analysis, training of personnel, validation, pilot implementation, reports, funding, and advocacy. Coordinated the technical team for the HIV/AIDS and nutrition guidelines update.
2006 –2009 Collaborator, World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization, Barbados, Bolivia and Ecuador
Facilitated the training of trainers’ course on child growth assessment using the WHO child growth standards. Translated the training course materials to Spanish.
2006 Thesis Advisor, School of Nutrition, Universidad Evangélica de El Salvador, El Salvador
Served as an advisor for a thesis research examining the “Nutritional status and schooling performance of first graders in rural San Salvador”.
2004 – 2006 Technical Officer on Nutrition, Ministry of Health and Social Assistance, El Salvador
Provided technical assistance and institutional and strategic guidance on maternal and child nutrition for the national implementation and monitoring of the nutrition program. Carried out across-programs’ tasks on planning, multilevel and multisectoral coordination, collaboration, training of personnel, budgeting, reporting, and technical documents, including national guidelines and adaptation of global strategies.
2003 – 2004 Technical Officer on Nutrition, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
Provided technical assistance on nutrition for the supplementary program, targeting the internally displaced population in Colombia, and the Process for the Promotion of Child Feeding (PROPAN). Completed data analysis using SPSS, edited the report, and contributed to the translation of the impact and process evaluation of the national food and nutrition program of Ecuador (PANN 2000).
2002 Consultant, Ministry of Health and Social Assistance and USAID, El Salvador
Completed research design and methods, quantitative and qualitative data collection, data analysis and reporting for the baseline study of the integral nutrition assistance (AIN) and micronutrient strategy.
2001 – 2003 Teaching Assistant, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Provided support to Professors Curberto Garza and Patsy Brannon, Susan Travis, and David Levitsky on course syllabus, course development, instruction, grading and office hours for the courses: Maternal and child nutrition, Sports nutrition, and Obesity theories, respectively.
1999 Dietetics II Course Instructor, School of Nutrition, Universidad Evangélica de El Salvador, El Salvador
Developed syllabus’ technical content, course materials, and delivered instruction.