Director / Programs Committee

Parul Christian, DrPH, MSc

As a nutritionist, public health specialist and epidemiologist, Parul Christian has a broad research portfolio in maternal and child nutrition focused on scientific advances in promoting growth, resilience and survival in early life through effective solutions for the low-income context.

Over the past 25 years Parul has advanced the field of maternal and child nutrition and micronutrient deficiency prevention in South Asia and Africa. Her research, underpinned by community randomized trials and epidemiologic studies, has contributed to generating policy relevant evidence on nutrition interventions for improving maternal, infant and child nutrition and health outcomes as well fetal growth and birth size, child growth and development, and long-term outcomes of cardiometabolic risk. From 2016 to 2019 Parul worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation as a Senior Program Officer, leading the strategy on women’s nutrition, shaping investments in novel interventions for pregnant and lactating women, human milk composition and quality and nutritional biomarkers. Parul has over 230 peer-reviewed publications, 12 invited letters and commentaries, and 9 book chapters and serves as Associate Editor for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She serves on numerous technical advisory committees.

Parul Christian received her undergraduate and MSc degree in foods & nutrition from the M. S. University of Baroda, India, and an MPH and DrPH from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.