About ICF

Caroline Deschak

Senior Nutrition and Food Security Research Specialist

Caroline Irene Deschak, MPH, is a nutrition and food security expert with specialized knowledge on migration. She brings 10 years of experience from across the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, where she has led large-scale operations, trainings, and applied research in complex settings.

Caroline Irene Deschak, MPH, is a nutrition and food security expert with specialized knowledge on migration. She brings 10 years of experience from across the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, where she has led large-scale operations, trainings, and applied research in complex settings.

Currently, Caroline has a dual role with ICF for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project, Surveys for Monitoring in Resilience and Food Security. As a survey manager, she coordinates and provides technical assistance population-based surveys to inform Feed the Future programming. As a qualitative researcher, she leads the design and implementation of the Livelihood Coping Strategies Research Activity, liaising with global experts from the largest humanitarian organizations in the world to amplify the voice of ordinary people in fragile settings. Her latest activities let her work with talented partners across Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Mali.

Caroline has an interdisciplinary background in all things food. This includes a Master of Public Health in Nutrition and Food Security from the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública in Mexico, where she was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Garcia-Robles grant to explore how to measure food access in migrants transiting Mexico. As a member and co-founder of several working groups, Caroline remains active in the academic community, promoting high-quality evidence to improve access to food and water in contexts increasingly affected by conflict and climate change. She is also a professional translator of Spanish and English, specializing in technical reports and scientific articles.

Through years of working and living multiculturally, Caroline thrives taking on challenging issues requiring coordination, creativity, and teamwork. As a former lead volunteer at a food bank, and current enthusiastic member of her neighborhood co-op, she finds fulfillment in bringing her passion for food security to both work and home.

Education
  • BSc, Interdisciplinary Studies in Public Health Nutrition. MPH, Nutrition and Food Security
Publications
  • Food insecurity and water consumption in migrants in transit through Mexico during the Covid-19 pandemic. Montes-Micker AP, Mundo-Rosas V, Infante-Xibillé C, Deschak C, Aragón-Gama AC, Dolores-Maldonado G, Orjuela-Grimm M. Salud Publica Mex. 2024;66:157-164.
  • Food Insecurity is Associated with Low Dietary Diversity in Rural Women in Mexico: Results from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey, ENSANUT 2018. Arango-Angarita A, González-Moreno A, Tercero-Gómez F, Mundo Rosas V, Deschak C, Shamah-Levy T. Ecol Food Nutr. 2023 Sep 25:1-22. doi: 10.1080/03670244.2023.2259805. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37743739.
  • Food insecurity and coping strategies in international migrants in transit through Mexico. Deschak C, Infante Xibille C, Mundo-Rosas V, Orjuela- Grimm M, Aragón-Gama AC. 2022. Journal of Migration and Health, 100099, ISSN 2666-6235, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmh.2022.100099.
  • Food (in)security in migrants on the move: A call for research. Deschak C, Orjuela-Grimm M, Aragon Gama CA et al. J Immigrant Minority Health (2021). Nature Public Health Emergency Collection.
  • La salud de los migrantes y sujetos de protección internacional centroamericanos en México ante el COVID-19: Marco legal versus acceso real (book chapter). Deschak C and Valle VM. 2021. Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales CLACSO. COVID-19: Nuevas enfermedades, antiguos problemas en Centroamérica, ch8 pp121-147
  • Migration and Health Research Trends in the Americas from 2009-2018. Deschak C and Valle VM. 2020. Oxford Encyclopedia of International Relations