Who We Are
The GCNF team is a high-caliber group of engaged domestic and international leaders with public and private sector experience in child nutrition and related fields. GCNF’s Board of Directors, US Team, and Global Team work closely together to support school meal programs that help children and communities thrive globally.
The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) Board of Directors brings a wealth of expertise spanning public policy, global health and nutrition, strategic communications, international development, agriculture, and more. Their combined leadership offers strategic insights into global policy landscapes, school feeding frameworks, and innovative programmatic solutions are crucial for steering GCNF.
Charles Wilder Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Cargill, Inc.
Food for Development Office
Tetra Laval AB
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Global Development
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Chief Commercial Officer
Motif Ingredients
U.S. Dairy Export Council
American Council of Life Insurers
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Land O'Lakes, Inc.
Corteva Agriscience
Kyle House Group
Leadership
Dr. Ronald Kleinman, President of the Board
Ronald is Physician in Chief Emeritus of the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Charles Wilder Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Kleinman’s major areas of research interest include gastrointestinal immunology, nutrition support of infants and children, and nutrition and public health policy.
Dr. Kleinman’s professional affiliations include the American Gastroenterological Association, American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD), North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN), and American Pediatric Society/Society for Pediatric Research. He is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, chapters, monographs and 4 textbooks.
Dr. Kleinman was a founder and past president of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. He has been a member of the Medical Advisory Group on Diet and Nutrition Guidelines in Cancer for the American Cancer Society, the National Cholesterol Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a member of the Institute of Medicine committees on Standards for School Meals and Obesity Prevention for young Children, member of the Board of Directors for the David Ortiz Childrens’ Fund, the Global Child Nutrition Foundation, the ILSI Research Foundation, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF New England Regional Board, the Massachusetts General Hospital Physician Organization and Chair of the Board for Project Bread. He was the Chair of the NIH/NICHD Workshop Planning Committee for the Dietary Guidelines: Birth to 24 Months. Dr. Kleinman is a member of the External Advisory Board (EAB) for the Obesity Research Center at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kleinman served as Chair of the Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is the author of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh editions of the Academy’s textbook, Pediatric Nutrition, and served as the Editor-in-Chief for Current Pediatrics Reports.
Kate J. Houston, Vice President
Kate is a distinguished global policy expert, revered thought leader, and passionate advocate for pioneering, collaborative solutions aimed at fortifying systems and advancing the health and well-being of individuals worldwide. Her extensive career trajectory most recently culminated in her role as the Vice President of Global Public Policy & Issues Management at Cargill.
With a profound understanding of intricate global policies, Kate has consistently driven initiatives that transcend boundaries, emphasizing innovative strategies that uplift communities and prioritize the holistic welfare of diverse populations. Her tenures at Cargill and the United States Department of Agriculture underscore her exceptional leadership, where she navigated the intersection of public policy and global issues, orchestrating transformative approaches to address complex challenges.
Rafael Fábrega, Treasurer
Rafael is the Vice-President – Food for Development for Tetra Pak, based in Stockholm, Sweden. In his global role, he is responsible for leading the Food for Development team, providing value-added support to Tetra Pak customers and developing partnerships with Governments, NGOs, UN, and International Development Agencies with the objective of implementing sustainable school feeding and nutrition programmes linked to local agricultural development.
Rafael has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Wayne Huizenga Business School at Nova Southeastern University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Loyola University New Orleans with specialization in International Business. He has more than 20 years of experience in international business development with a specialization in creating public-private partnerships to address food security and nutrition challenges.
Prior to his global role, he held various positions as a Commercial Director and Food for Development Director responsible for Latin America. Under his responsibility, he has led the collaboration with NGOs, UN, and International Development Agencies such as: GCNF (Global Child Nutrition Foundation), UN World Food Programme, FAO, SUN (Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network), GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), LA-RAE (Latin American School Feeding Network), INCAP (Nutrition Institute of Central America & Panama), Sida (Swedish International Development Agency), GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation), Venture Dairy, Bureau of Nutrition & Development, Feed the Children, Heifer International, among others.
He has been involved in the collaboration and development of new school feeding programmes linked to local agricultural development in 18 countries and led the team that successfully implemented dairy development projects linked to smallholder farmers in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Albania, and Uganda. In 2021, 66 million children in 44 countries received milk and other nutritious beverages in Tetra Pak packages in school.
Ashleigh Black, Secretary
Ashleigh is the former Director of Congressional Relations at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Based in Washington, Black is a member of the United Nations HIV and Nutrition Inter-Agency Task Team, a co-chair of the Kansas Governor’s Humanitarian Commission, and a member of the President’s Advisory Board at EARTH University in Costa Rica.
Before joining the Council, Black served as Associate Director at the George Washington University Center for Global Health and taught courses in George Washington University’s Master’s in Public Health program. She previously worked in the policy division of the Rome-based United Nations World Food Program, as a senior policy analyst at the Global Health Council, and as a legislative aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Black earned a BA in Journalism and Spanish Literature at the University of Kansas and a Master’s degree in State Management and Humanitarian Affairs at the Universita degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza in Rome.
Members
Trish Ault, Member
Trish Ault is a communications professional with over 30 years’ experience supporting corporations, nonprofits and foundations. She is a Principal Consultant at BT Global Access, a Canadian-Based Social Enterprise & International Student Recruitment Agency dedicated to promoting global cooperation through education and intercultural linkages.
Trish is the former executive vice president for the Weber Shandwick Canada, a global agency practice group focused on supporting corporations, nonprofits and foundations to drive engagement on pressing social issues. Prior to her work at Weber Shandwick Canada, Trish was the communications director for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) chaired by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Responsible for the development and implementation of AGRA’s global communications and advocacy strategies, Ault worked in markets across sub-Saharan Africa. Trish holds a master’s degree in political economy from Carleton University.
Valerie Nkamgang Bemo, Member
Valerie is the Deputy Director, Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). In her current role, she manages the foundation’s investments that support communities affected by natural disasters and complex emergencies.
Within the BMGF, Dr. Nkamgang Bemo pioneered and executed the Emergency Strategy to respond to all major world disasters, including the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, the Ebola Breakout in 2014, and the Nepal Earthquake in 2015. Additionally, Dr. Nkamgang Bemo designed and implemented a critical strategy for Agriculture Development in West Africa, with a focus on Nigeria. She holds over 20 years of direct experience in the field worldwide and is passionate about building local capacity within communities and national institutions, fostering innovative solutions and sustainable growth that results in lasting change.
Before joining the BMGF, Dr. Nkamgang-Bemo held various roles at the International Rescue Committee, most recently serving as Senior Technical Advisor for health in the Democratic Republic of Congo and West Africa. She has experience with a wide variety of NGOs internationally with extensive experience in Emergency Relief, as well as Clinical and Public health. Regarding education, Dr. Nkamgang Bemo received her MD from the University of Cote d’Ivoire, an Epidemiology Diploma at the University of Paris, and her MPH from Madrid Autonoma University.
Michele Fite, Member
Michele is the Chief Commercial Officer for Elo Life Systems, a next generation plant-based ingredients company. She brings nearly 30 years of diverse experience across food and consumer goods, including infant formula, weight management, sports nutrition, medical foods and dietary supplements.
Michele has deep, proven experience heading global strategy, planning, operations and P&L responsibility for multi-billion-dollar portfolios. Formerly President of Dairy and Culinary with Kerry Ingredient and Flavors, she has held leadership roles at a number of companies, including DuPont, Solae and Nestle. Michele was the founding CEO at Cadena BioSciences, a start-up focused on gut microbiomes.
Krysta Harden, Member
Krysta is the president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC). In her role, she brings experience with agriculture, sustainability, and food policy to help promote dairy exports and enrich the well-being of people, communities, and the planet. Harden directs a staff of trade specialists, policy professionals, marketers, and strategists, and oversees eight international offices working to facilitate dairy product knowledge, identify opportunities, monitor regulatory activity, and improve the business climate for U.S. dairy.
Previously, Harden served dual roles as USDEC’s chief operating officer and Dairy Management Inc.’s EVP of global environmental strategy. Before joining DMI, Harden served as chief sustainability officer with Corteva and DuPont. Harden also spent seven years working with Secretary Tom Vilsack at USDA, nearly three of those years as deputy secretary, where Harden helped shape agriculture policy and led implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill.
David Hong, Member
David is a Senior Advisor at Kyle House Group and brings over a decade of advocacy and government relations experience on foreign assistance, agricultural development and global food security, agricultural research, and global nutrition.
David previously led government affairs as Senior Vice President at Farm Journal Foundation, an education and advocacy organization focused on putting the best ideas from U.S. agriculture to work to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges, including global hunger and malnutrition. In this role, he worked closely with members of Congress, their staff, and administration officials to prioritize funding for global food security, nutrition, and domestic and international agricultural research. Prior to joining Farm Journal Foundation, he served as a foreign affairs fellow for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health for Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA). In this role he covered economic development and trade issues in Africa, foreign assistance, global health, food security, and a range of domestic policy issues.
From 2014 to 2018, David led global policy for One Acre Fund – an agricultural social enterprise that delivers modern seed, fertilizer, agronomic training, and distribution to over 1.5 million smallholder farmers in East and Southern Africa. He engaged with a wide network of bilateral aid agencies, multilateral donors, and national governments in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Prior to One Acre Fund, he managed agriculture policy issues at The One Campaign, an advocacy organization co-founded by Bono, and was based in Washington, DC and Johannesburg, South Africa.
David holds a master’s degree in international development and policy analysis from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from the University of Delaware. He resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland with his wife, Caitlin, and their daughter.
Emily Ma, Member
Emily is a climate and social impact intrapreneur. She currently oversees a number of special projects focused on sustainable internal operations for Google in 56 countries. This includes efforts such as establishing Google’s public global food waste goals and driving various efforts to decarbonize Google’s global real estate portfolio.
Prior, Emily oversaw Google’s cross-functional food security efforts building on her technical work on food systems started at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory. She activated Google’s philanthropic arm, initiated partnerships with the food and ag industry, and drove industry change by increasing data openness to reduce food waste and food insecurity. At Google, Emily has also worked on a wide range of breakthrough technologies including Loon internet balloons and Glass smart glasses.
Emily started her career as a mechanical engineer at IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, during which she came to embrace the equal importance of human-centered design, engineering and business. With this, she returned to Stanford University to pursue her MBA and continues to actively teach entrepreneurship classes at the Stanford School of Engineering, hosting guests such as Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Daniela Amodei (Anthropic) in her classes. She is the holder of seven patents spanning medical devices to consumer electronics.
Tina May, Member
Tina currently serves as the Chief of Staff and VP of Rural Services for Land O’Lakes, Inc. Prior to joining Land O’Lakes, Tina was an international grain trader, a Silicon Valley executive, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture at USDA, Legislative Director at USDA, and senior policy staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture during the writing, negotiation, and passage of both the 2008 and 2014 Farm Bills.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and master’s degree from the University of London. Tina serves on the board of The Good Acre, The Global Child Nutrition Foundation, and founded a non-profit in her rural hometown that fundraises and invests in community led development. Tina hails from a family farm in rural Iowa and resides in the Midwest with her husband and three young sons.
Susan Neely, Member
Susan is President and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), whose mission is to help families live better lives by creating more certainty now and in the future. ACLI’s 275 member companies represent 93 percent of industry assets and provide financial security products and services to 90 million families.
In her role, Neely has forged groundbreaking initiatives and partnerships on paid leave and retirement security policy. Key examples include passage of the SECURE Act in 2019 and SECURE 2.0 in 2022. ACLI has advanced our commitment to closing coverage gaps. Under Neely’s leadership, ACLI has invested in initiatives that make an impact, like the ACLI Capital Challenge, which supports financial education for kids across the nation.
Neely is widely recognized as one of the most influential people in association leadership. She is a two-time trade association CEO of the year, one of Washingtonian’s “most influential people” and “100 Most Powerful Women in Washington.”
A native of Iowa, Neely holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree from Drake University. She is the mother of two adult children, Eve and Ben.
Heidi Spahn, Member
Heidi is the Global Community Investment Leader and Foundation President for Corteva Agriscience. She is responsible for corporate giving in Indiana and Iowa and leads donations and community outreach for United States and international giving programs and projects. Heidi also oversees Corteva’s disaster response relief and employee volunteer engagement.
Heidi started her career at Dow AgroSciences in 1996 in the Law Department and in 2001 moved to the Government and Public Affairs Department. During her time in Public Affairs at Dow AgroSciences, Heidi worked on a variety of internal and external roles, media relations, corporate brand, managed tours of the global headquarters, along with leading corporate citizenship efforts and community outreach globally.
Heidi is a graduate of the 19th class of the Indiana Agricultural Leadership Program. She’s currently a board member for the Indiana 4-H Foundation, National FFA Foundation Board of Trustees and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation. Heidi was a volunteer at the NFL Experience during Super Bowl XLVI held in Indianapolis, Indiana. She currently volunteers with organizations aimed to address food insecurity, 4-H, and Indiana Sports Corp. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations from Ball State University. Heidi is a former 10 year 4-H member, Boy Scout volunteer, and Girl Scout leader. She hails from a family farm in Poseyville, Indiana, U.S.A.
The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) team is a high-caliber group of engaged domestic and international leaders with public and private sector experience in child nutrition and related fields.
US Team
Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director
Arlene was appointed Executive Director by the Board of Directors of Global Child Nutrition Foundation in April 2014. Prior to that, Arlene served for nearly six years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was Deputy Director for Access and Markets in the Agricultural Development Program.
Earlier in her career, she served as an executive in the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where she led the global school feeding effort; managed international technical assistance and training activities for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and was both a volunteer and staff member with the U.S. Peace Corps. Arlene’s varied experience also includes running a restaurant and a snack machine business, invalid care, and a variety of other gambits.
Heidi Kessler, MS, SNS, Deputy Director
Heidi joined the GCNF team in December 2019 and provides valuable leadership, management, and guidance to GCNF programs and operations.
Heidi is a passionate school food advocate who believes that school meals are essential in raising a healthier generation of children. As a well-known trainer, speaker, and expert in environmental, policy, and systems changes that support healthy eating, Heidi has created innovative models and tools for school wellness that are used across the United States. Heidi provides training, facilitation, technical assistance, grant writing, program development and evaluation services to school districts, universities, state agencies, non-profits, and industry partners on school nutrition.
Heidi’s previous roles include Chief Programs Officer at Chef Ann Foundation and Executive Director of the Smarter Lunchrooms National Office at Cornell University. As a senior leader of the childhood obesity prevention program, Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0, Heidi was a key member in the development, implementation, and evaluation of a multi-sector childhood obesity prevention program, now used across the globe.
Heidi earned a BA in Psychology from Guilford College in North Carolina and later an MS in Nutrition from Northeastern University in Boston. She is a master gardener, herbalist, and forager.
Emily Fredenberg, Senior Program Officer
Emily joined the GCNF team in April 2024. She brings ten years of experience in program management, communications and partnerships in the global food security and nutrition space. Emily spent six years with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rwanda, Lebanon and Italy. During this time, she helped to launch and manage a national school meal program in partnership with the government of Lebanon and led WFP’s communications efforts to support the government of Rwanda expand its home-grown school meal program towards national coverage. Prior to GCNF, Emily was at The Rockefeller Foundation where she managed a portfolio of grants supporting global food security and nutrition.
Emily holds a Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in International Relations from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. She is passionate about nature and in her free time enjoys hiking and skiing in the mountains of Alaska.
Laurie Miller, Nonprofit Financial Advisor
Laurie joined the GCNF team as a financial advisor in July 2022 to provide higher-level guidance on the organization’s financial systems, reporting and compliance.
Laurie has devoted the last 20+ years to the art of financial and operational leadership for mission-driven organizations. She began her career as a CPA with an MBA, working in public accounting and corporate Seattle but inevitably recognized her affinity for the not-for-profit sector. Laurie honed her strategic nonprofit business skills over 16 years at IslandWood, an organization focused on experiential environmental science education. She then spent three years in New Zealand where she provided strategic guidance to a start-up group of sustainable companies formed to benefit the local New Zealand communities.
Alissa Rutkowski, Communications Coordinator
Alissa joined the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) in September 2024. As Communications Coordinator, she leverages her skills in strategic communications, partnership development, and event management to raise the profile of GCNF’s flagship initiatives including the Global Child Nutrition Forum and the Global Survey of School Meal Programs.
Before joining GCNF, Alissa was the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Membership at the Joint National Committee for Languages and National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS), where she was responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of all programming, membership, and communications efforts.
Alissa holds a BA in Psychology and Communications from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan and is currently pursuing her Certified Association Executive (CAE) certification to continue developing her leadership and association management skills.
Outside of work, Alissa loves traveling to new places in search of the world’s best cup of coffee, always with a good book in hand.
Laurel Shelmandine, Business Administrative Consultant
Laurel joined GCNF in 2024 after many years advising major academic health systems on business processes, accounting systems and change management. She became interested in food systems and the educational systems at age 11 when she created a successful street fair to raise money for school packages of supplies for the children of the migrant workers of the Hudson Valley, NY.
She currently splits her time between GCNF and the Chittenden Asylum Seekers Assistance Network in Northwestern Vermont and the musical events she hosts. Her home is in Jericho, Vermont nestled in the beautiful Green Mountains.
Yale Warner, MSc, Associate Program Officer
Ayala Wineman, PhD, Research Coordinator
Ayala began working with the Global Child Nutrition Foundation in 2018. She holds a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics from Michigan State University and is now also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. Her research relates broadly to rural development, food systems transformation, food environments, and food security primarily (but not only) in sub-Saharan Africa.
Global Team
Senior Advisors
Rita Bhatia, Senior Advisor, Nutrition
Rita is a nutrition expert currently based in India. Rita brings extensive experience in managing public health nutrition programs working with NGOs, and UN agencies dedicated to protection, food security, nutrition, food fortification, education and HIV and AIDS. Her career emphasis has been on conceptualization, planning, management and evaluation of programs. Rita believes in coaching and mentoring young public health professionals. She acts as a resource person for public health nutrition training and workshops around the world. She has been the course director for nutrition in emergency training in Asia and the resource person in the middle east.
During her positions with the United Nations and NGOs, Rita provided leadership in public nutrition and health program. Rita is currently a freelance consultant involved in country portfolio evaluations, capacity development, and board member of local and international NGOs and on technical advisory panel. Rita has master’s degrees in nutrition from India and Social Development from University of Wales, Department of Development Studies, United Kingdom.
Languages: Hindi, English
Kei Kuriwaki, Senior Advisor, Japan
Kei is a marketing and nutrition expert currently based in Japan. He is the President of International Child Nutrition Japan (ICNJ), a Japan-based non-profit providing global advocacy on Japan’s nutrition and health care system for children, including school meals. Kei also brings forty years of private sector experience. Through his work with Ajinomoto and The Ajinomoto Foundation, he supported health and nutrition improvement projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At GCNF, Kei provides technical assistance and outreach for the 2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum and other projects involving Japanese partners. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the International Christian University in Toyko.
Languages: Japanese, Indonesian, English
Alice Martin-Daihirou, Senior Advisor, Africa
Alice is a school feeding expert currently based in Cameroon. She worked for several years with the UN World Food Programme, occupying various senior level positions at headquarters and in the field. Alice has long been a friend and supporter of GCNF and is a regular participant and presenter at the Global Child Nutrition Forum. Presently, Alice serves as Senior Advisor, Africa, providing technical assistance and outreach on behalf of GCNF. Alice holds both a B.S. focused in Human Ecology/Early Childhood Development and an M.Sc. in International Studies from Howard University
Languages: French, English, African creole
Francis Mwanza, Senior Advisor, Africa
Francis is a researcher and writer on African and local foods, and formerly the London head of office for the World Food Programme. He is undertaking a project to repatriate ‘lost’ local seeds and promote African food heritage in his home country of Zambia, with emphasis on underutilized, nutritious, and resilient local foods.
Languages: English
Africa
Liliane Bigayimpunzi, Survey Coordinator: Africa
Liliane is a school feeding expert currently based in Burundi. Liliane has worked with GCNF both as a consultant and as a volunteer and attended a couple of fora. In January 2019 she served as the Deputy Coordinator for Africa in the 2019 Global Survey of School Meal Programs.
Liliane has extensively worked in the safety net and social protection domain and has served as a Program Policy Officer, Education, Gender and Protection and as a Health, Nutrition and Education Program Officer at the World Food Programme. In that position, she greatly contributed to the transitioning towards home grown school feeding and the introduction of milk in the food basket. Liliane has held project management positions with both UNESCO and UNICEF before joining WFP.
Before joining the United Nation organizations, Liliane served in various senior positions as Civil servant in her country. Liliane holds a Degree in Communication from the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Communications Sociales, Bruxelles (Belgium) and a Masters in Gender Studies from Université Lumière de Bujumbura. Liliane is passionate about arts (literature, music, sculpture) and has a particular interest in questions relating to the protection of the environment.
Languages: French, English, Kirundi
Priscilia Etuge, Survey Associate: Africa
Priscilia is a consultant in socio-economic assessments, sustainable natural resource management and monitoring and evaluation. She is currently a Global Survey Associate. She joined GCNF’s Global Survey of School Meal Programs in January 2019.
Priscilia holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in animal breeding and genetics. She is currently carrying out research for her doctorate degree in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Buea, Cameroon, with a focus on food security.
She has over 25 years of working experience carrying out socio-economic assessments, natural resource management, monitoring and evaluation, and working with multi-stakeholders in development. She has worked in ODA/DfID and World Bank funded conservation and development projects in Cameroon and headed two Non-governmental Organizations. She is a trainer, facilitator and a health and wellness educator.
Languages: English, French
Moses Collins Ekwueme, Survey Associate: Africa
Moses is a public health specialist with extensive experience in nutrition program implementation, health financing, sexual and reproductive health, and research.
He has worked as a nutrition specialist in the World Bank-financed Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project. Prior to this, Moses has managed and successfully rounded-up an RMNCAH program (funded by Nutrition International) that provided nutrition education and sexual and reproductive health services to women of reproductive age in Abuja, Nigeria.
Moses has substantive survey experience— he played a key role in the data collection and analysis exercise of the Lagos State Household Survey on Health Expenditure and the 2019 National Health Account of Nigeria, while working with the Health Financing Unit of the Federal Ministry of Health.
He holds a Masters in Global Health (Nutrition) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is an incoming PhD student of Nutrition and Health Sciences at Emory University.
Languages: English
Eth Ludmilla de Gois Vieira Nunes Rodrigues, Survey Associate
Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
The Americas
Mariel Mendiola, Global Survey Team Lead: The Americas
Mariel Mendiola is the Team Lead for the Americas at GCNF, where she coordinates the regional work of the Global Survey of School Meal Programs since July 2023. She also serves the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a Senior Consultant, leading a project on School Feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Before joining GCNF, Mariel spent five years as an International Consultant at the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) where she contributed to advancing regional public health initiatives by providing technical assistance to governments for their implementation. Mariel’s career spans diverse public health and nutrition roles across both the private and public sectors, including functions at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ), and the Ministry of Health of the State of Nuevo León, Mexico. She has also served as a Research Assistant for the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC) and volunteered with diverse non-profit organizations.
Mariel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and a Master’s Degree in Public Health with a Concentration in Health Administration from the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico. Driven by her passion for helping countries and communities –especially children– thrive, she continues to work as an independent consultant in school feeding, nutrition, public health, social protection, and international development.
Languages: Spanish, English, German –and currently learning French.
Asia & The Pacific
Zhanna Abzaltynova, Survey Associate: Asia & the Pacific
Zhanna is a Global Survey Associate and has worked for GCNF Global Survey of School Meals Programs since March 2019. Zhanna is currently based in Kazakhstan. She has over 10 years of administrative experience working for international businesses. She holds Bachelors in English Language Teaching from Kazakh University of International Relations & World Languages (Kazakhstan), bachelor’s in management from Almaty Management University (Kazakhstan) and master’s in business administration from Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden). Currently, Zhanna is working on gaining a new specialization in the field of Digital Marketing & Media from Duke University Continuing Studies.
Zhanna is a life-long learner and always focuses on her self-growth. Her interests are photography, yoga, travelling, Zumba and languages.
Languages: Russian, English
Mary Bachaspatimayum PhD, Deputy Coordinator, Asia & the Pacific
Mary has been with GCNF since 2019 and started as associate for Asia-Pacific region for the Global Survey of School Meal Programs. She facilitated and coordinated partners and stakeholders’ interactions for the India Learning Exchange.
A social anthropologist with more than 10 years of research experience in academic, professional and civil society organization settings. She has been associated with studies on nutrition, school education, rights and entitlements and maternal health. Her primary expertise is in mixed-method research and ethnographies. Her skill set includes devising online/remote data collection systems using open-source platforms. Mary has significant experience in design and organization of learning events including training, conferences, roundtables. She has also been managing editor of the Journal of Contemporary Thoughts-an interdisciplinary journal advancing theory in humanities.
An avid reader and traveler Mary loves cooking and experimenting with regional cuisines.
Languages: English, Hindi, Meiteilon
Shivani Gharge, Research Coordinator
Shivani joined the GCNF team in July 2024. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Ramnarain Ruia Autonomous College, India, and obtained her M.A. and M.Phil. in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India. She is in the final stages of completing her Ph.D. in Population Studies at IIPS, focusing on food intake, physical growth, retention, dropout, and learning outcomes in the context of the Mid Day Meal programme in India.
Shivani is a recipient of the Government of India Fellowship for her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D., as well as the Newton-Bhabha PhD Placement Award, funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).
Her research interests include nutrition issues among women, children, and adolescents, with a particular focus on school feeding interventions and their multi-sectoral returns. She is passionate about dancing, traveling and reading.
Languages: English, Hindi and Marathi.
Melissa Pradhan, Survey Associate: Asia & the Pacific
Melissa holds a master’s degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. She has been with GCNF since 2019 and is currently based in Nepal. Melissa has over 5 years of experience working closely with high-level government officials on policy and governance programs. Currently also a consultant for the International Water Management Institute under the CGIAR consortium, she has previously been affiliated with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and Oxford Policy Management.
Languages: English
Europe & the Middle east
Nicole Jacquet, Survey Coordinator: Europe & the Middle East
Nicole, a former Senior Program Advisor first with the Food and Agriculture Organization and then with the World Food Programme, is currently based in France and Italy. She holds a master’s in international relations from the University of York (UK). She extensively collaborated with GCNF when working with WFP where she served in various capacities in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mauritania, Burundi and Rome. Her last position until the end of 2017 was WFP Country Director a.i. in Burundi where she managed two major operations: a Country Program and a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation of a value of approximately USD250 million over four years. School meals was the major program implemented in the country.
Languages: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Majd Sheik, Survey Associate: the Middle East
Majd originally hails from the vibrant lands of Palestine and graduated with her Bachelor in English Language and Literature with a minor in Translation in 2018 from Birzeit University. Prior to joining the GCNF team, Majd taught English and did project management and coordination.
Languages: Arabic, English
