Swetha Manohar
Research Scholar
About
Swetha Manohar is a Fellow under a joint appointment as part of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of International Health and Berman Institute of Bioethics. Manohar’s joint appointment helps advance the “Realism of Healthy, Sustainable Diets in Southeast Asia” and “Rural Deprivation and Food Insecurity” studies, supported by Bloomberg DP Funds. Her research primarily focuses on community-based and policy-level approaches to improve nutrition and food security in low and middle income countries. Specifically, she conducts research on: (1) determinants of disparities in food insecurity and undernutrition among women and children and multi-sectoral interventions to address these disparities (2) conceptualizing and contextualizing equitable, ethical, and sustainable diets and food systems for LMIC and; (3) child growth - factors influencing growth as well as short- and long-term consequences of impaired growth. She plays a leadership role in study design, country-level research, technical assistance, and partner engagement in the study design for countries of focus.
Prior to joining SAIS, Manohar worked as a Project Scientist for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab research and capacity building initiatives focused on agriculture-nutrition linkages in Nepal from 2011 to 2015. She continues to serve as a Co-Investigator and part of the core research team. Manohar has previously provided research support to other organizations including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Ministerial Leadership Initiative (MLI), and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). She is a Registered Dietitian and between 2006-2009, worked as a Clinical Dietitian (RDN) at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center providing medical nutrition therapy to a varied inpatient and outpatient population.
Manohar received her PhD in International Health (Human Nutrition) and holds a MSPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her RDN credentialing and dietetic internship at the University of Maryland, College Park, and holds a BSc in Human Nutrition from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Prior to joining SAIS, Manohar worked as a Project Scientist for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab research and capacity building initiatives focused on agriculture-nutrition linkages in Nepal from 2011 to 2015. She continues to serve as a Co-Investigator and part of the core research team. Manohar has previously provided research support to other organizations including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Ministerial Leadership Initiative (MLI), and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). She is a Registered Dietitian and between 2006-2009, worked as a Clinical Dietitian (RDN) at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center providing medical nutrition therapy to a varied inpatient and outpatient population.
Manohar received her PhD in International Health (Human Nutrition) and holds a MSPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her RDN credentialing and dietetic internship at the University of Maryland, College Park, and holds a BSc in Human Nutrition from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.