Grace Heymsfield graduated from the University of Michigan in 2017 with a Masters of Public Health in Nutritional Sciences. For her public health practicum, Grace went to Malawi to study care groups promoting nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life. Following graduation, Grace completed her Registered Dietitian's training through the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. Prior to attending graduate school, Grace served as a Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow in Haiti for non-profit Convoy of Hope. Originally from Arkansas, she studied dietetics at the University of Arkansas, where she also competed on the track and cross country teams.
Field Placement: Based in former Gogrial West county, Warrap state in South Sudan, Grace worked with Action Against Hunger (AAH) to assist program management of static nutrition sites. As a Nutrition Fellow, she conducted assessment visits to Outpatient Therapeutic Program sites for acute malnutrition that informed activities and planning for future programming. As part of the nutrition team, she planned, monitored, and evaluated mother-to-mother support groups with pregnant and lactating women in Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programs. Furthermore, she planned opportunities for these groups to provide formal feedback to AAH. During the lean season, when hunger rates spike, she participated in a Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) survey proposal and implementation to estimate prevalence of acute malnutrition of children 6-59 months in former Gogrial West county.
Policy Placement: Based in New York City, Grace supported analysis and uptake of ComPAS (the Combined Protocol to treat Acute Malnutrition Study) within the Technical Teams of Action Against Hunger and the International Rescue Committee. As ComPAS Research and Policy Officer, Grace's work included identifying secondary analysis research topics. She prepared dissemination materials for secondary findings and help share results with key stakeholders, including implementing partners in Kenya and South Sudan. She also helped share larger findings of the study during the No Wasted Lives Coalition's Research Workshop in May/ June 2019.