Monica T. Kothari
Monica T. Kothari, MPH, MSc, serves as the project director of food security surveys at ICF. With more than 25 years of experience, she is a seasoned public health team leader proficient in planning, implementing, and delivering multi-topic, population-based household surveys and providing technical assistance in multi-sectoral nutrition. Currently, she leads the USAID Feed the Future Surveys for Monitoring in Resilience and Food Security (SMRFS) project and brings over a decade of experience working with the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program.
Monica T. Kothari, MPH, MSc serves as the project director for ICF’s international nutrition and food security surveys. She is recognized as a thought leader and subject-matter expert on various topics, including the multisectoral aspects of food security, maternal and child nutrition, growth monitoring, micronutrient supplementation, resilience, and policy analysis. She has served on international technical groups hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, providing guidance on developing indicators, improving anthropometry survey data quality, and utilizing data for policy and program planning.
As a team leader, Monica has demonstrated a history of establishing key relationships and applying a solution-focused approach to achieve measurable results. She has a positive track record of navigating sizable global and country-level initiatives, such as supporting the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, coordinated by the United Nations (UN), which encompasses more than 60 country initiatives. In various professional roles, she has served as the primary point of contact with USAID, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UN agencies, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, host country governments, and local and international subcontractors.
Monica has contributed to articles in international peer-reviewed journals and global reports. Additionally, she serves as a member of a technical advisory panel and as a peer reviewer for institutional bodies and international journals. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, majoring in international health and minoring in health policy and management. She also holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Food and Nutrition, as well as a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Home Economics.
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MPH, International Health (major) and Health Policy and Management (minor)
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PhD candidate, Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition
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MSc, Foods and Nutrition
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BSc, Home Economics
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Kothari M, Samson K. Chapter No. 28: Designing effective programs for anemia prevention, treatment, and reduction. Nutritional Anemia: 2nd Edition, Sight and Life. 2022.
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Coile A, Wun J, Kothari M, Hemminger C, Fracassi P, and Di-Dio D. Scaling up nutrition through multisectoral planning: what can we learn from a review of 26 multisectoral national nutrition plans. Maternal Child Health and Nutrition. 2021; e13225.
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Kothari M, Dionne Mackison, Katja Siling, Carolyn Hemminger, Sandrine Fimbi, Denise Lionetti, Abigail Perry and Blene Hailu. Nutrition Embedding Evaluation Program: Supporting civil society organizations to conduct quality nutrition impact evaluations, lessons learned and recommendations.
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Kothari MT, Pullum T, Coile A, Huestis A, et at. Exploring associations between water, sanitation and anemia through 47 nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1450 (2019): 249–267, 2019
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Kothari M (Chapter contribution and review). WHO Technical Report. 2019. Minimum anthropometric data quality criteria & methods for harmonized data collection, analysis and reporting of nutrition surveys.144p. Part of the WHO TEAM sub-group for supporting development of this technical report.