Thalia Sparling is an Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and the Co-Director of Research for the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy, an interdisciplinary community of practice with over 10,000 members worldwide. She conducts research on causal pathways between food systems and nutrition/health, especially as these pathways relate to mental health, the environment and climate. She specialises in large-scale evidence (and methods) synthesis, path and decomposition analysis, and implementation research, including co-production. Thalia serves as the Evidence Synthesis Theme Lead for LSHTM's Centre for Evaluation.
Thalia is an integral member of the Nutrition for Global Health Master programme at LSHTM, and supervises DrPH and PhD candidates. She has organised Master courses on Nutrition in Emergencies, and is the current Module Organiser for Nutrition-related Chronic Diseases. She has developed and taught courses on decolonising global health and nutrition, as well as the sociopolitical history and landscape of nutrition and humanitarian intervention. She has been a Master Trainer on the ANH Academy’s intensive programme on interdisciplinary curriculum enrichment and teaching.
Thalia holds a PhD from the University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Public Health. Her dissertation examined the association of food access, diet and nutrition with depression in women, particularly in Bangladesh. Prior to this, she worked in South Sudan as a Technical Advisor to the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program with the Carter Center. Thalia holds an MPH from Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health, and a BA from Smith College in Anthropology.
Affiliations
Teaching
2022-current: Lecturer, Nutrition in Emergencies, Nutrition-related Chronic Diseases
2024-current: Module organiser, Nutrition-related Chronic Diseases, Nutrition in Global Health MSc
2021-2024: Module organiser, Nutrition in Emergencies Module, Nutrition in Global Health MSc
2024: Master trainer, ANH Academy Curriculum Enrichment Training Programme. Interdisciplinary lectures include One Health and Climate and the Environment for Food Systems and Nutrition
2021: Tutor, Epidemiology (EPM301) Outbreak Module Distance Learning Course
2020: "Pathways between agriculture, food systems and nutrition – global perspectives." Guest lecture for London Metropolitan University
2019: Qualitative Methods 101, Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy Week, Hyderabad, India
2016-2017, 2019: Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg: Rapid Appraisal in Public Health Emergencies, for Public Health Anthropology short course, Master Program
2017: Panel speaker, Disease Elimination and Eradication in the 21st century, 35th Meeting of the German Society of Tropical Paediatrics, Heidelberg, Germany
2015-2017: Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg: Disease Surveillance and Eradication, for Disease Control short course, Master Program
2014: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University: Guest Lecture, Guinea Worm Disease and Public Health in South Sudan: lessons from the field
Research
Public Health: epidemiology, interdisciplinary research and methods
Food systems and nutrition: food-based approaches to malnutrition, social nutrition, methods and metrics for agriculture-nutrition pathways, mental health, climate and the environment
Methods: causal, decomposition and path analysis, evidence synthesis, implementation science