Jennifer Coates

Jennifer Coates
Assistant Professor of Food Policy and Applied Nutrition, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

Working with Feinstein Since: 2010

Jennifer Coates’ research focuses on the development of methods for improving the design, implementation, and evaluation of international nutrition and food security programs in both development and humanitarian emergency contexts.  Methods-related initiatives include the development and validation of: methods for scaling up global dietary data collection and use (INDDEX); indicators of the affordability of quality diets in Africa (IMMANA-IANDA); a standardized approach to malnutrition causal analysis and response assessment (ACF); methods for evaluating the micronutrient impact and functional health outcomes of national fortification programs (GAIN); dietary diversity indicators in emergency-prone contexts (WFP); and global experiential food security measures (FANTA).

Jennifer also conducts research to understand the implementation and impact of integrated food security programs, including identifying promising models for sustainable exit from Title II-funded food aid programs (FANTA III), and examining the implementation challenges of integrating agriculture and nutrition programming (Ethiopia/ENGINE). Through the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group On Agricultural And Rural Statistics, she serves on the Technical Working Group to improve the measurement of food consumption in surveys on household consumption and expenditure. She also serves on the UN Expert Advisory Group on Food and Nutrition Security Measurement, and on the Editorial Board of the Global Food Security Journal.

Jennifer received her B.A. in international relations, magna cum laude, from Tufts University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in food policy and applied nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

For all of Jennifer’s publications, please download her CV at the top of page.

Courses Taught:
  • Monitoring and Evaluation of Nutrition and Food Security Projects (NUTR 217), Spring Term
  • Nutrition, Food Security, and Development (NUTR 304), Fall Term

News Items

Food Policy publishes article on measuring food security by Dan Maxwell and team
February 27, 2017

Feinstein Research Director Dan Maxwell teamed up with Visiting Fellow Bapu Vaitla, Senior Researcher Jennifer Coates, Laura Glaeser, Christopher Hillbruner, and Preetish Biswal to publish “The measurement of household food…

Read More
Fall classes are starting soon!
September 2, 2016

Classes are starting soon, and Feinstein faculty, researchers, and visiting fellows will be bringing their vast experiences to the classroom! Look below for the list of courses. Friedman and Fletcher…

Read More

Feinstein Research Projects

Humanitarian Information Systems: Anticipating, Analyzing, and Acting in Crisis

This study seeks to understand the availability and quality of information, and the external influences on data collection and analysis for the classification of food emergencies.

Read More
Food Security Measurement

Under this project, a variety of food security indicators are incorporated into field surveys of other studies in order to assess their applicability, cost, reliability, and internal, external, and construct validity.

Read More

Feinstein Publications

Comparing Household Food Consumption Indicators to Inform Acute Food Insecurity Phase Classification

One important component of analysis of food insecurity in emergencies is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Food Insecurity Reference Table. This table provides a graduated description of…

Read More