Claudia Rokx is a health and nutrition expert and a former lead specialist at the World Bank. She founded the Heights and Minds Foundation in 2017 as part of the so-called third phase in the LER life cycle of Learn, Earn, Return. As of January 2020, she dedicates much of her time to Heights and Minds working at the grassroots level and implementing the experience and ideas obtained and developed over the past three decades. 

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She started her career in development, specializing in child growth, nutrition and women’s empowerment in 1990 in the Dominican Republic with Senutri Inc. She spent 5 years working with women in the poor barrios of Santo Domingo and Barahona to improve their knowledge on nutrition, improve the growth of their children, and improve household incomes.

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In 1996 she joined the World Bank in Washington DC, and spent the next 25 years working in health and nutrition in over 50 countries. She designed and implemented large scale community nutrition programs in Madagascar, Senegal, Indonesia and Guatemala among others. She spent five years in Indonesia working on the entire health system, including nutrition. She also spent several years in Russia, working on the Caucasus, Turkey and Eastern Europe developing health strategies and working on improving the health of the Roma people.

 

She has a Ph.D. in International Nutrition Policy from the University of Maastricht, has published a variety of books and articles on health and nutrition, and is a frequent keynote speaker on nutrition and child growth at international conferences.