About

Meet the Professors

With 20 years of experience each as university professors, we founded fni.health to stay connected with our graduates and provide them with current evidence.

Lisa Houghton

I'm a Professor in Human Nutrition with a long-standing interest in nutrition in early life.

I completed my undergraduate, masters and dietetic training at the University of Guelph, Canada. I worked years in industry in pediatric research before undertaking field work and project management in middle-and-low income countries.

I have a keen interest in micronutrient status, food security, diet diversity and breastfeeding.

I also love reading about geopolitics, business, gender and philosophy.

Rachel Brown

I’m a Professor in Human Nutrition with a particular interest in nutritional assessment, chronic disease risk, and food-based strategies to improve the health of populations.

I completed my undergraduate degree and PhD at the University of Otago. Since then, I’ve enjoyed an academic career where I’ve continued to learn by teaching inquiring minds and leading research groups – where we’ve advanced knowledge and informed practice.

I enjoy the challenge of making sense of the science – which is often confusing and conflicting. I also take great pride in working with local teams to build capacity and sustainable solutions.

Co-designing Health: Local Partnerships, Lasting Impact

We co-design evidence-based interventions that empower communities to achieve lasting health improvements.

Our team combines expertise in Behavior Change Communication (BCC) with deep subject matter knowledge in nutrition and health across the lifecycle. This powerful combination allows us to craft targeted messages that resonate. We take a collaborative approach, co-designing interventions alongside local partners to ensure cultural relevance, stakeholder engagement and sustainability.

But it doesn't stop there! We're committed to evidence-based solutions, grounded in what actually works. That's why we provide extensive monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning frameworks to measure impact and continuously refine our strategies.

The result? Effective and efficient programmes that can be implemented and monitored by the very teams they empower, ensuring long-term success.

Kenyan preschool nutrition survey and intervention

Nutritional assessment survey of preschool children in the Maasai and Kamba tribes in Kenya. Community interventions included school gardening programme, onsite greenhouses, small animal breeding and orange-flesh sweet potato initiatives.

Household nutrition and WASH survey

Large household nutrition and WASH survey in Kiribati investigating a beriberi epidemic revealed the triple burden of malnutrition among household members initiating multiple health campaigns and education modules.

Nutrition and education modules

Delivery of short course education modules starting with the Pacific Healthy Living and Eating Guidelines. Teams were then assisted with health campaign design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation plans.