Tag: obituary

David Nabarro, Nutrition Leader, Passed Away

Sir David Nabarro, a distinguished British physician, international civil‑servant, and global health visionary, passed away at his home on July 25, 2025, aged 75.  His legacy includes decades of transformational work in global nutrition, food security, public health and crisis response — marked by initiative, collaboration, and deep compassion.  

In 2010, Dr Nabarro was appointed the first Coordinator of the global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, uniting governments, civil society, donors, the UN, and the private sector in a shared mission to reduce undernutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.  As Coordinator of the SUN Movement, he worked closely with NGOs such as Action Against Hunger, Concern Worldwide, CARE, Helen Keller International, and others who were key partners in delivering community-level nutrition programs.  Nabarro said, in a Devex interview:  “The creation of malnourished societies is an injustice, is itself an act of violence that is causing damage that is just going on for too long.”

Over his career, he led important U.N. aid responses such as for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, avian influenza (2005–14), the Ebola outbreak in West Africa (2014–15), and the cholera epidemic in Haiti (2010).  As WHO Special Envoy for COVID‑19, from 2020 until his passing, he emphasized “precision public health” — promoting testing, isolation, and vaccine equity over blanket lockdowns.

  His international health colleague, Dr. Ron Waldman remembers:  “Nabarro has to be considered among the most important and most influential leaders of our time in global health.  It would be difficult to name all of his positions in a single sitting, but even though some of them were brief, he always had a major impact. He led WHO’s efforts on polio, malaria, Ebola, Covid, and disaster relief, among others.

“He was skilled diplomat, but never afraid to ruffle feathers when that would advance a righteous cause; he was a consummate technocrat, but always had innovative and creative ideas and was eager to put them on the table; he was a dreamer and a visionary, but also as much a goal-oriented, down-to-earth pragmatist as any leader could be.

“Dr. Nabarro’s leadership came from deep within, to be sure, but it was as much defined by the loyalty and devotion of his followers from all around the world and from every station, to whom he would never stop listening and from whom he would never stop learning.   He was a great man.”

 Nabarro championed collaboration across sectors, believing that “dialogue, collective and synergistic action” was essential for sustainable impact—an approach celebrated by the Micronutrient Forum, which lauded him as the “founding father of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.”   In 2018, Dr Nabarro received the World Food Prize as recognition of his outstanding leadership in maternal and child undernutrition.  In his acceptance speech, Nabarro explained “Nutrition is not just about food. It’s about changing societies, empowering communities, ensuring access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare.”

     Peter Morris, the retired chair of World Hunger Education Service (publisher of Hunger Notes) recalls “David was a great soul. I remember the first time I met him he was already a legendary persona in the emergency and humanitarian world and very high-placed in the United Nations.  My first impression was how personable and genuinely interested he was in those he spoke to, and what they had to say. A most memorable time for me was when we were in Guinea at the same time during the 2014 Ebola Crisis.  I was the USAID Team Leader, and David was leading the UN actions.  We were on the same UN helicopter whose schedule had been late. “

      “We were up in the air when he was also scheduled to open a meeting via zoom in Europe.  The helicopter was a noisy Russian model yet instead of cancelling the opening, David via his mobile and earphones gave a speech from his webbed seating to a full meeting room without notes, concise, and clear, with great aplomb.  Meanwhile the rest of us were hanging on to the webbing in the helicopter, praying for a safe landing.”

Peter interviewed Dr. Nabarro for Hunger Notes for this article:  https://www.worldhunger.org/an-interview-with-david-nabarro/

The World Health Organization, where he was a senior leader for much of his career, described him as “a widely respected, impactful and loved champion of health, equity and disadvantaged people worldwide,” noting his kindness, mentorship, and readiness to support others in their careers.

Dr. Rick Brennan, who worked many years leading emergency responses at WHO remembers:  “David was one of the most visionary, practical, ethical, and compassionate people with whom I ever worked.  There are so many memories and examples of his extraordinary contributions to global health and humanitarian action.  In Darfur in 2004, we admired him for his determination to demonstrate to the world the scale, scope, and public health impact of the humanitarian crisis.  In Geneva in 2005, partners were amazed by his brilliant management of the first Global Health Cluster meeting – he was the chairman, main technical expert, and rapporteur, writing and projecting the discussions in real time. 

       “And I will always be grateful for his extraordinary support during the Ebola crisis – his encouragement of the WHO team during difficult times; his frequent and positive participation in our morning meetings in Geneva; and his humble, yet authoritative chairing of the Global Ebola Response Coalition.  I envied him for his strategic insights, technical smarts, political savvy, and ability to convey true compassion for the most vulnerable.  A unique man of great passion, and extraordinary personal and professional qualities.”

One of his most hands-on and influential contributions was the development of a simple, locally made height board—a tool used to assess stunting in young children, a key indicator of chronic malnutrition.  Early in his career, serving as the District Child Health Officer in Dhankuta District, Nepal, Dr. Nabarro recognized that many health workers lacked tools to measure child growth and malnutrition.  Deployed by Save the Children UK, Dr. Nabarro helped design and field-test a wooden height board that could be built locally, using simple materials and carpentry skills. The board included a sliding headpiece, a measuring scale, and was constructed to be durable, portable, and easy to use in rural health posts or during outreach clinics.

Dr Nabarro’s legacy is written not just in awards and positions, but in the millions of children saved through improved nutrition programs, the strengthened health systems through crisis response, and the global leaders he mentored.  

Other tributes:

 

Rest in Peace, Dr. Gretel Pelto

Nutritional anthropologist and inspiration to many, Gretel Pelto, passed away on July 15, 2025 at the age of 85.  “She was a  delightful person who sparked my imagination” said a nutritional anthropologist colleague.

Pelto was a pioneer in promoting formative research as a precondition for effective program design.  She helped institutionalize methods like Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures (REAP), which allow programs to quickly understand.   Pelto emphasized that local caregiving behaviors, feeding practices, and beliefs about illness critically influence child nutrition and diarrhea outcomes. She argued that programs must understand how mothers and caregivers perceive and respond to symptoms like diarrhea.  This led to more tailored and relevant messages and interventions, such as adjusting oral rehydration therapy (ORT) messages to local contexts.

Pelto highlighted the central role of women — not just as caregivers — but also as decision-makers who are constrained by time, income, and intra-household power dynamics.

Perhaps her greatest legacy was her bridging anthropology with applied nutrition and public health programming.  She worked with organizations like WHO, UNICEF, and USAID to integrate qualitative insights into nutrition planning.  At the World Health Organization in Geneva from 1992 to 1999, Gretel led groundbreaking initiatives to improve household management of childhood illnesses, shaping global health strategies across Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Her classic textbook “Nutrition Anthropology:  Prospects and Perspectives” was one of the earliest to flesh out nutrition anthropology in development and aid.  She authored over 160 research articles, 14 books and monographs, and 35 technical reports and manuals.  Many of which can be found in the Cornell University hosted “Gretel Pelto papers, 1974-2017: ” https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA04327.html

She was awarded the Malinowski applied anthropology award, and the Kellogg Award in International Nutrition, an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki (1996), and fellowships with both the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Gretel cherished mentoring students and collaborating with colleagues.  Her enthusiasm and keen intellect fostered a global community of scholars and practitioners.  World Hunger Education Service former Chair, Margie Ferris Morris, remembers Pelto — her mentor and advisor:  “Gretel was always encouraging to her students. She once told me to believe in myself more, as the work I was doing was important! “

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was an early friend of musician/roubadour Bob Dylan and taught him the song House of the Rising Sun..  She is survived by her beloved husband and collaborator, Dr. Jean-Pierre Habicht, a famous and accomplished nutritionist.

 

In Remembrance of Dr. Peter Salama

Many of us in emergency nutrition field were shocked to hear that Dr. Peter Salama passed away last week.  Peter died suddenly and unexpectedly of natural causes. He was 51 and leaves behind his wife and three children. At the time of his death, Peter, a medical epidemiologist from Australia, was working as Executive Director of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Division for Universal Health Coverage – Life Course. Peter joined WHO in 2016 as the Executive Director of the Health Emergencies program, which he led until 2019. Prior to WHO, Peter was Regional Director for the UNICEF Middle East Office.

Peter was a great soul; a brilliant epidemiologist with a strong experience in nutrition. Peter had a commitment to humanitarian work.  I was fortunate to have had a number of interactions with Peter throughout my career. In every interaction, Peter was unfailingly helpful, kind and patient.

I first met Peter in 2000. Peter was working at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta in the Refugee Health Branch.  I was at USAID and asked and funded CDC to send assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Gode, Ethiopia to oversee therapeutic feeding programs with UNICEF  Peter volunteered along with Dr. Paul Speigel. I remember it was difficult to arrange for them to travel, and throughout the stops and starts of this mission Peter was graciously patient with me. It was this mission where Peter and Paul did the pivotal work that changed how the international community ran therapeutic feeding centers (Salama, P. et. al. JAMA, August 1, 2001—Vol 286, No. 5). It is my opinion that this work spurred the innovation of Community Managed Acute Malnutrition (CMAM)

I had several other interactions over the years, always seeking confirmation of some perplexing nutritional data issue in Darfur, or in Afghanistan, and meeting him in the field in Africa. I considered Peter as the authoritative and final word on nutrition and humanitarian data questions.

His death is a loss to all of us, especially the victims of famine, drought and humanitarian crises.

See also: A Tribute to Peter Salama, a Champion of People in Fragile States and War-Torn Places

WHES Loses a Key Board Member

LINDA CRANDALL WORTHINGTON

1932-2019

 

Linda Crandall Worthington, 87, of Chevy Chase, MD, passed away on Sunday, October 20, 2019.

Over her lifetime, Linda was involved with a number of organization that serve the poor and hungry, including the World Hunger Education Service. Information about Linda has been drawn from her own Bio on our website.

Linda’s relationship with the World Hunger Education Service started at the beginning of WHES. In the 1970s, she worked with the founder of WHES, Pat Kutzner, on hunger seminars and publications, including editing several of the earliest print issues of Hunger Notes. She became a member of the Board of Directors in the mid-1990s and served as a Board member until 2017, and Emeritus thereafter. She was Board Secretary for most of that time. She edited and contributed articles for Hunger Notes. Her experience in a variety of situations where hunger was important, her experience in editing and publishing, her warmth and collegiality, and her ability to see a way forward for a small organization, played a major role in WHES’ existence and development over the years.

Most of the positions Linda held over the years have dealt with hunger and poverty in one form or fashion. These included:

In the 1990’s:

  • As senior editor for the now defunct DIVERSITY magazine, a publication on biodiversity that dealt a lot with agricultural research.
  • Co-director of the International Voluntary Services, an overseas development organization that placed volunteers in other countries.
  • Administrator for a small advocacy group called the Campaign to Oppose the Return of the Khmer Rouge (CORKR).

During the 1970s, Linda worked for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. One of her most notable efforts was organizing and holding a seminar on Capitol Hill to look at food and hunger issues, based on the book, Food First, by Frances Moore Lappe. The conference included several congressmen as well as other prominent speakers on various aspects of the issue.

For 14 years, Linda lived overseas as a foreign service wife, in Vietnam from 1962-1965, then in Thailand for eight years. She later found out Dan Shaughnessy, a former WHES Board Chair, was also in Vietnam at that same time. She was also Dakar, Senegal, with her husband and remained there until his death in 1981.

For the past twenty years, Linda had been a writer/editor for the United Methodist Church’s Baltimore-Washington regional office and wrote stories and articles for the bimonthly newspaper, the UMConnection, for the Web site, and was editor and writer of the weekly e-connection.

Linda was employed occasionally as an editor and did several projects one place or another.

  • In Senegal she worked as the administrative assistant and coordinator for a large multi-country nutrition project that brought together officials from several francophone countries to talk about “nutrition planning.”
  • She researched and wrote on the effects of the sale of Nestle products on poor people. Her work took her into the worst slums of Bangkok to interview women.

Linda had received her B.S. in Social Work and English from Kalamazoo College, and her M.A. in Theology from Wesley Theological Seminary. Linda started more graduate work at Michigan State in Anthropology and Sociology but went overseas before writing the dissertation.

She is the mother of four grown children. Linda was an active member of a United Methodist Church, held membership in the United Methodist Association of Communicators and the Religious Communicators Association and was vice president of the International Voluntary Services Alumni Association. In  2019 she was awarded the Harry Denman Award for Evangelism.

Linda traveled to more than 35 countries in five continents, many of which were work missions. Some of Linda’s leisure time was spent as a member of a league of duckpin bowlers.

Linda’s contributions to World Hunger Education Service were innumerable and will she will be dearly missed by those who worked with her at World Hunger Education Service, as well as many other who are working to address hunger and poverty.

A link to Linda’s obituary may be found here.