How are we working to achieve our goals
Our work towards achieving our five key goals (see right) involves initiating, running and reporting on a host of projects across the Society via joint initiatives, working groups and committees. (Further details of how we’ve broken down the goals into smaller projects and prioritised them can be found on page 18 of our Strategic Plan).
Responsibilities to drive these activities are currently allocated to the Secretariat and SISN’s Board, but ultimately many activities will be designated to an evolving portfolio of experts and ambassadors drawn from the Society’s diverse membership and beyond. We post such opportunities in the Get Involved section of this site and via our newsletter.
Goals, highlights and teams for our current initiatives can be found below (click on the + signs below to reveal the full details).
Details of our past initiatives can be found here.

Joint Initiatives
Strengthening Global Nutrition Impact Through Collaboration
SISN has partnered with Nutrition International (NI) on a joint initiative entitled ‘Strengthening Global Nutrition Impact Through Collaboration’. The partnership will involve a number of activities aimed at supporting individuals and organizations to make greater use of implementation science to improve their own implementation and impact.
Specific activities under this Memorandum of Understanding include:
- Webinar Series: The series will focus on topics relevant to NI programs and workforce development needs.
- Implementation Research (IR) Methods: This activity aims identify, develop, curate, package, disseminate and/or build capacity for a variety of implementation research methods suitable for NI field programs.
- Internship Program
Milestones and Achievements
2020
- Core team created and terms of reference developed for webinar series
- Completion of first webinar focused on scaling up pulses fortification (Dec 2020)
Project Leader
Chowdhury Jalal (SISN Councilor and NI)
Project Team
Naomi Cahill (SISN Communications)
Mduduzi Mbuya (SISN Chief Information Officer)
Edward Frongillo (SISN President)
Mandana Arabi (NI)
SISN Committees and Working Groups
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee support the President by participating in strategic planning. They are responsible for overseeing the implementation of the strategic plan and board policies, and making sure that the board and working groups are establishing and maintaining good governance practices. The Executive Committee also replaced the Finance Committee in providing oversight on the Society’s finances. The Executive Committee addresses pressing issues, prioritizes items for the full board to address, and reports their activities to the board.
Committee Chair
Edward Frongillo (SISN President)
Members
Peggy Bentley (SISN Past President)
Rebecca Heidkamp (SISN Vice President)
Megan Bourassa (SISN Treasurer)
Caroline Skirrow (SISN Chief of Operations)
Finance Team
The Finance Team is responsible for the day to day financial management, and hold regular meetings to discuss the Society’s financial matters.
Team Chair
Megan Bourassa (SISN Treasurer)
Project Team
Caroline Skirrow (SISN Chief of Operations)
Altruic Advisors (SISN CPA/Bookkeepers)
Communications Working Group
The role of the Communications Working Group of SISN is to formalize and diversely disseminate messages that succinctly capture the mission, vision and strategic plan of the Society and add value to it’s audiences. Specifically to:
- Provide direction on the communications strategy and planning
- Enhance the visibility and image of the Society and support the drive for membership and the delivery of value to the Society’s different audiences
- Ensure that the Society is at the forefront of the IS/IR nutrition agenda and collects and disseminates up to date, high-quality and relevant information in an appropriate and timely fashion
- Oversee the delivery of the communications activities with the development of relevant content for the Society’s communication channels.
Milestones and Achievements
2020
- Published 12 blogs and news items
- Hosted 3 webinars
- Added more than 100 new resources to our searchable online IS Knowledge Hub
- Observed a 25% increase in website traffic and Twitter and LinkedIn followers
- Reached more than 750 people with each SISN quarterly newsletter
2019
- Published 10 blogs
- Hosted 4 webinars
- Launched the IS Knowledge Hub searchable online database
- Achieved over 16,000 clicks to the SISN website
- Grew SISN’s social media following to 517 on Twitter and 350 on LinkedIn
- Reached more than 750 people with the SISN quarterly newsletter
2016-Ongoing
- Develop and implement a communications strategy and content plan
- Maintain and update the SISN website
- Host an interactive webinar series
- Disseminate a quarterly newsletter including recent SISN news and resource round-up section
- Have an active presence at live events e.g. ASN
- Engage with SISN members through surveys, webinar attendance, guest blogs, etc
WG Chair
Naomi Cahill (SISN Communications)
Project Team
Mduduzi Mbuya (SISN Chief Information Officer)
Caroline Skirrow (SISN Chief of Operations)
Implementation Science Initiative (ISI) Working Group
The ISI Working Group was convened to help oversee the appropriate management of ISI grant funds, ensuring that the deliverables are completed in line with contractual obligations. Its mandate is to:
- Receive periodic updates on the initiative to monitor progress, help identify emergent lessons and insights and provide guidance and problem-solving as may be required
- Provide technical backup to the SISN senior technical advisor as may be required
- Provide guidance on which aspects of the experience might be highest priority as topics for the broader nutrition scientific and practitioner community via SISN global webinars.
Milestones and Achievements
2018
- Working group formed
WG Chair
David Pelletier (Ex Officio)
Project Team
Gretel Pelto (Ex Officio)
Alison Tumilowicz (BMGF, Program Officer)
Isabelle Michaud-Letourneau (SISN Sr Tech Advisor)
Membership Working Group
The Membership Working Group’s mandate is to:
- Provide initiatives, advice and recommendations to the Board on matters related to membership, recruitment and engagement and ensure implementation upon receiving approval from the Board
- To provide a platform for the creation, development and evaluation of membership engagement initiatives and activities to enhance the image and credibility of the Society.
- Oversee the delivery of SISN’s membership-related activities
- To provide members with excellent resources, value-added resources and opportunities for engagement
- To review and sign off any membership related material in consultation with the appropriate Councilor.
Milestones and Achievements
2020
- UNICEF became an Affiliate SISN Member with courtesy membership offered to UNICEF staff
- Membership criteria and application process reviewed and streamlined
2019
- Membership survey disseminated and analysed
2016-2018
- Membership criteria and application process agreed
- Online application process and payment system implemented
WG Chair
Purnima Menon (SISN Councilor)
Project Team
Andrea Warren (SISN Councilor)
Caroline Skirrow (SISN Chief of Operations)
Naomi Cahill (SISN Communications)
Methods Working Group
The Methods Working Group’s mandate is to:
- Contribute to advancing the theory, methods and conduct of implementation science (IS) in nutrition by strengthening the methods for implementation research (IR)
- To lead and cultivate the Society’s discussion and activities around the sound development and practice of methods of IS/IR in nutrition
- To enable a place for members to share their knowledge, understanding and experience in methods and types of methods for IR in nutrition, by enquiring, learning and reporting and curating information collected through surveys, questionnaires and other means as appropriate
- To enable a platform for the sharing and learning on methods used in IS and IR in nutrition among SISN’s members and to guide that process
- To provide members with excellent resources, tools, knowledge on the methods for IR in nutrition, and further provide opportunities for engagement to strengthen methods for IR
- To make the information on methods for IR available, usable and workable for purposes including but not limited to: reports, funding proposals, training, webinars, resource materials, etc
- To oversee the delivery of SISN’s methods-related activities
Milestones and achievements:
2017-2018
- Methods survey developed, disseminated and analysed
WG Chair
Edward Frongillo (President)
Project Team
Gretel Pelto (Ex Officio)
Stephanie Martin (SISN Member Volunteer)
Sorrel Namaste (SISN Member Volunteer)
Barbara Reed (SISN Member Volunteer)
Roseanne Shuster (SISN Member Volunteer)
SISN Events
2021
- During the CORE Group Global Health Practitioner Conference 2021, January 27-28th, SISN hosted a 30-minute interactive panel discussion entitled “Delivering Nutrition Programs at Scale: Using Implementation Science to Strengthen Design and Delivery of Adolescent Nutrition Programs”
2020
- At the American Society of Nutrition’s Nutrition Live Online, June 1-4, SISN facilitated an interactive session: Covid-19 and Program Implementation: Implications for Implementation Science
- During Micronutrient Forum Connected, November 2-20, SISN hosted a Learning Center entitled “Challenges and Lessons Learned in Delivering Nutrition Programs at Scale: Examples of Balancing Implementation and Science in India and Kenya”
2019
- At the American Society of Nutrition’s annual meeting, Nutrition2019, in Baltimore, June 8-11, SISN facilitated a workshop on Implementation Science.
- At the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy Week in Hyderabad, India 24 – 28 June, SISN facilitated a Learning Lab on Implementation Science in Nutrition
2018
- At the American Society of Nutrition’s annual meeting, Nutrition2018, in Boston, June 9-12, Dr David Pelletier guided a poster tour of Implementation Science and Dr Gilles Bergeron hosted a scientific café on the application of nutrition modeling tools in IR.
- At the IFPRI-FAO Global Event: Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutritionin Bangkok, November 28-30, SISN, IFPRI and the SUN Secretariat co-hosted a side event on the Knowledge for Implementation and Impact Initiative (KI3)
2017
- At Experimental Biology, April 25, in Chicago, USA, Dr Pelletier, Dr Lynnette Neufeld (GAIN) and Dr Rachel Sturke, Fogarty Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), delivered a symposium on “Implementation Research in Nutrition: Purposes, Methods and Applications”.
- At the Global Health Mini-University, September 14, Washington DC, SISN co-hosted an innovative session with GAIN and Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING), entitled “Diagnose, Design, Deliver, Redesign: Applying Implementation Science to Nutrition”.
- At the International Union of Nutritional Sciences-International Congress of Nutrition (IUNS-ICN), October 15-20 , Buenos Aires, Argentina SISN co-hosted two symposia 1) IFPRI & SISN: “Using implementation research to build better multi-sectoral programs for improving maternal and child nutrition outcomes”. 2) Nutrition International (NI) & SISN: “Evidence-based integration of nutrition across multiple sector programs: how can this be done?”
- As part of the KI3 initiative, SISN, IFPRI and the SUN Secretariat co-hosted a workshop at the SUN Global Gathering in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in November on “Sharing Knowledge, Methods, and Experiences on Implementation: How can SUN Countries Better Implement Priority Actions?”
N.B. This information will be periodically updated to keep you posted on our achievements and mark our progress towards our goals. Last updated on April 1st, 2022.