Dr Helena Pachon

Public health nutritionist with over 20 years of experience in applied research and programs to address malnutrition with a special focus on developing countries. My research interests are in two main areas: food-based approaches to address malnutrition, and infant and young child nutrition. 

In terms of food-based approaches, I worked for several years at the intersection of agriculture and nutrition with crop biofortification: naturally breeding staple crops to have higher nutrient levels. I did this work at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia. 

Currently, I support industrial fortification: adding vitamins and minerals to staple foods as they are processed for human consumption. I do this in my capacity as Senior Nutrition Scientist for the Food Fortification Initiative in Atlanta, USA. 

In infant and young child nutrition, I have had a long-standing commitment to developing, improving and providing training and technical support to ProPAN, a tool used globally to assess and plan infant nutrition interventions. 

I completed my nutrition training at Cornell University and my public health education at Harvard University. I hold an appointment as Research Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. I am also a member of Emory’s graduate faculty in the nutrition and health sciences doctoral program.