Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Shelley Walton, MPH, RD, is a nutritionist and maternal and child health specialist focusing on improved nutrition and food security implementation in vulnerable populations.
Contact Info
615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E8530
Baltimore
Maryland
21205
US
Research Interests
International Nutrition Program: Development and Delivery; Food Assistance: Programming, Ration Design, Packaging, Supply Chain Logistics; Nutrition in Emergencies; Nutrition-Specific Programming; Nutrition-Sensitive Programming; Social and Behavior Change; Health Communication; Humanitarian Assistance; Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; Nutrition Indicators and Metrics; Infant and Young Child Feeding; Malnutrition; Monitoring and Evaluation; Cost-Effectiveness; Implementation Science; knowledge translation; evidence-based decision making; capacity building; mentorship; training; education
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
MPH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2011
RD
East Carolina University
2010
BS
The Pennsylvania State University
2009
Overview
As a nutritionist and maternal and child health specialist, Shelley Walton has a portfolio focused on food security, humanitarian policy and practice, food assistance, wasting and stunting, infant and young child feeding, and implementation science. Her research aims to improve nutrition and health outcomes among populations in low resource settings. She has a strong interest in generating and translating evidence to impact stronger policies and programs to reach children, women, and adolescents more effectively.
Over the past 10 years Shelley has contributed to the field of maternal and child nutrition in Africa and Asia. Before joining the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health in 2019, she managed the USAID Food Aid Quality Review at Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. While there, her work was underpinned by cost-effectiveness field research trials on malnutrition, food assistance design and implementation, humanitarian policy analysis, and translation of nutrition science to practice. As faculty at the JHSPH Institute for International Programs and Center for Human Nutrition, her projects focus on 1) providing evidence for advocacy, planning, and accountability to enhance reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health & nutrition 2) improving methods, evidence, estimates, and programming to promote improved measurement of nutrition & MNCH intervention coverage.
She has worked closely with USAID (Office of Food for Peace, Bureau for Food Security and Bureau for Global Health), USDA (McGovern-Dole Food for Education), NIH, WFP, UNICEF, Global Financing Facility, The World Bank, non-governmental organizations, Ministries of Health, industry, and global academic partners. Shelley serves as the CORE Group’s Nutrition Working Group co-chair and along with the other co-chairs, she provides technical leadership and facilitate a group of nutrition practitioners, researchers, policy leaders, and funders to further the strategic development of standards, activities and products that will advance a joint technical nutrition agenda.
Shelley is a Registered Dietitian and earned her BS in Nutrition Science from The Pennsylvania State University and her MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Over the past 10 years Shelley has contributed to the field of maternal and child nutrition in Africa and Asia. Before joining the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health in 2019, she managed the USAID Food Aid Quality Review at Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. While there, her work was underpinned by cost-effectiveness field research trials on malnutrition, food assistance design and implementation, humanitarian policy analysis, and translation of nutrition science to practice. As faculty at the JHSPH Institute for International Programs and Center for Human Nutrition, her projects focus on 1) providing evidence for advocacy, planning, and accountability to enhance reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health & nutrition 2) improving methods, evidence, estimates, and programming to promote improved measurement of nutrition & MNCH intervention coverage.
She has worked closely with USAID (Office of Food for Peace, Bureau for Food Security and Bureau for Global Health), USDA (McGovern-Dole Food for Education), NIH, WFP, UNICEF, Global Financing Facility, The World Bank, non-governmental organizations, Ministries of Health, industry, and global academic partners. Shelley serves as the CORE Group’s Nutrition Working Group co-chair and along with the other co-chairs, she provides technical leadership and facilitate a group of nutrition practitioners, researchers, policy leaders, and funders to further the strategic development of standards, activities and products that will advance a joint technical nutrition agenda.
Shelley is a Registered Dietitian and earned her BS in Nutrition Science from The Pennsylvania State University and her MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Select Publications
Food Assistance
- 1. Webb, P., Caiafa, K., Walton, S.M. for the Food Aid Quality Review Group, Making Food Aid Fit-for-Purpose in the 21st Century: A Review of Recent Initiatives Improving the Nutritional Quality of Foods Used in Emergency and Development Programming. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Vol. 38, Issue 4. December 2017. p. 574-584. https://doi.org/10.1177/0379572117726422
- 2. Langlois, B. K., Suri, D. J., Wilner, L., Walton, S. M., Chui, K. H., Caiafa, K. R., & Rogers, B. L. (2017). Self-report vs. direct measures for assessing corn-soy blend porridge preparation and feeding behavior in a moderate acute malnutrition treatment program in southern Malawi. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition,1-12. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19320248.2017.1374902
- 3. Schauer C, Sunley N, Melgarejo Hubbell C, Walton S.M., et al. Experiences and lessons learned for planning and supply of micronutrient powders interventions. Matern Child Nutr. 2017;13(S1):e12494. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.12494
- 4. Wilner, L., Suri, D. J., Langlois, B. K., Walton, S. M., & Rogers, B. L. (2017). Effective delivery of social and behavior change communication through a Care Group model in a supplementary feeding program. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 36(1). https://jhpn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41043-017-0111-3
- 5. Suri, D., Marcus, S., Ghosh, S., Kurpad, A., & Rosenberg, I. (2013). Protein Quality Workshop: Importance of Protein Quality in Prevention and Treatment of Child Malnutrition. Food & Nutrition Bulletin, 34(2), 223-283. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/156482651303400211
Projects
Countdown to 2030 Exemplars in Global Health Maternal and Neonatal Mortality
Countdown to 2030 Phase II - Data Analysis Center & GFF Country Collaboration
Countdown 2030 Phase I - Regional Initiative - Strengthening analysis and evidence for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent’s Health in West and Central Africa