Dr Nasima Akhter, an interdisciplinary researcher, is an Associate Professor of Public Health at the School of Health and Life Sciences at Teesside University with over 20 years’ experience in observational and experimental research (RCTs in public health, clincal and educational settings). She is experienced in project design, planning and implementation, managing and analysing large and complex datasets.  She aims to make data available to support policy decisions to reduce inequality, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and is particularly keen on research promoting health of South Asians in the UK.

Previously working with Durham University, she led a team of interdisciplinary researchers, and supported enhancement of skills in quantitative methods among students and staff. She has also completed consultancy projects for the WHO, UNHCR, Save the Children, Oxfam Canada among others. 

Her PhD from UCL Institute for Global Health, UK (2013), assessed impact of the global food price crisis on affordability of a nutritionally adequate diet by socioeconomic groups in rural Nepal.

In Bangladesh, working with Helen Keller International Bangladesh (1997-2007) she led a team of Analysis and Reporting Officers, and contributed as a key researcher for  the Nutritional Surveillance Project, Homestead Food Production Program, and various external evaluation projects including evaluation of the 'Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Program (BINP), and its successor 'National Nutrition Program (NNP)'.

Research Interests: 

• Health Inequalities,
• Child, adolescent, and women's nutrition,
• Migrant health, Diet of South Asians,
• Non-Communicable Diseases,
• Food security, 
• Evaluation of interventions.

Review panel experiences: Currently a review panel member of Peer Review College UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme.

She also contributed to the wider scientific community  as a  review panel memer for MRI, UKRI, NIHR, ESRC, the British Academy, and EU funded Health Equity grant call (ERA4HEALTH partnership).

She regularly contributes to scientific community as reviewer for several journals. In 2024, she reviewed for Social Science and Medicine, SSM Population Health, Agriculture and Food Security, International journal of environmental research and public health, International journal of obesity.

Journal Editorships:

- BMC Public Health https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/, (Since May 2024); 

- Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition | About(biomedcentral.com) a BMC (part of Springer Nature) journal (2021-2024)

Current PhD supervisions:

• Sian Oldham (2024 -2028), Senior advanced neonatal nurse practitioner at The James Cook University Hospital, North East hospitals group and Teesside University collaborative PhD Fellow . The Pebble Study: Extended PEEP or Bubble CPAP for term and late preterm babies with signs of respiratory distress. Supervisors: Nasima Akhter (DoS), Grant Trewartha, Prakash Loganathan. 

• Zijie Lin (2021-2025). Migration, remittance, and sustainable development in Bangladesh. Supervisors: Professor Gillian Bentley (Durham University), Nasima Akhter (Teesside University).

Previous PhD, Masters by Research students (Durham University )

• Nuzhat Choudhury (2019-2023), Durham Doctoral Studentship. The effects of nutritional vs social inequalities on prevalence of stunting in Bangladesh. Supervisors: Dr. Nasima Akhter, Professor Gillian Bentley, Professor Barry Bogin (Loughborough).
• Alice-Amber Keegan, (2020-2022), awarded PhD. ESRC Nine DTP Scholarship. Parenting in the first 24 hours: Trialing an intervention to improve parent-infant caregiving in the in-patient postnatal period. Supervisors: Professor Helen Ball, Dr. Nasima Akhter.
• Rosie Harris, Masters by Research, (2021-2022), submitted Thesis. Anthropology department. Sense of belonging, mental wellbeing, and help-seeking of Durham University students. Supervisors: Dr. Nasima Akhter, Dr. Jed Edward Stevenson.
• Halima Akhter (2019-2024) Commonwealth Scholarship. Understanding the causes of high rate of caesarean section deliveries and its impacts on maternal health in Bangladesh. Supervisors: Professor Gillian Bentley, Dr. Nasima Akhter.