Devika Saran

Devika Saran is a Ph.D. student in International Nutrition at Cornell University, under the guidance of Professor John Hoddinott. Her research explores into the factors that drive improvements in malnutrition in Bangladesh and how evidence-based nutritional solutions can enhance food environments and overall population well-being. She holds an M.S. in Food Science and Nutrition from SNDT University, Mumbai, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Nutrition from the University of Delhi, India.

Before joining Cornell, she led the Nutrition and Wellbeing department at a corporate health and wellness start-up in Dubai. Prior to that, she served as a Senior Nutritionist at HealthifyMe, a prominent digital health and wellness company in India.  Additionally, Devika has worked as a Research Associate at PepsiCo India Holdings, where she contributed to corporate nutrition responsibility initiatives in collaboration with the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) and conducted market analyses to support India's "Eat Right Movement."

Furthermore, during her tenure as a Program Associate at the Public Health Foundation of India in Gurugram, Devika drafted modules for a UNICEF-partnered project on ‘Activating Social Platform of Women Activist for Development Action (WADA)’ focusing on maternal health and nutrition practices in six districts of Uttar Pradesh, India.

Devika’s commitment to addressing nutritional inequities among low-income populations is evident through her work on projects funded by UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in India. These projects included an impact evaluation of maternal nutrition interventions and a study assessing programmatic gaps in the Anemia Free India (Anemia Mukt Bharat) initiative, led by the Government of India.

With her extensive experience in community-based and applied nutrition research, Devika aims to apply rigorous empirical methods to inform nutrition policy and strengthen food systems across low- and middle-income settings.