Lindy Thaker, M.D.

Lindy Thaker, M.D., became PGNB chief in 2024. She is a board-certified pediatrician and global nutrition expert with more than 16 years of clinical and public health experience, including substantial work in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Her efforts have focused on best practices in clinical care and programming in HIV, maternal child health, and the malnutrition spectrum, from the undernutrition of wasting and stunting to the inadequate nutrition of obesity. She strives to promote the health and wellness of children, their families, and communities by collaborating with others to advance our understanding of best practices in health and nutrition and to make that information understandable, relevant, and actionable for all. 

Prior to joining NICHD, Dr. Thaker worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She assisted in the technical and administrative management of the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance project and the Child Blindness Program, co-led the Ecology of Parent Infant and Child Nutrition working group of the U.S. Government’s Global Nutrition Coordination Plan, served as the nutrition point for USAID collaborative work with the World Health Organization, and headed the capacity strengthening work stream of the agency’s flagship Advancing Nutrition project. She also served as a supervisor, mentor, and coach. Her other global work included clinical care, program and project design and management, technical advising, capacity building, coaching, and policy-level interventions. 

Dr. Thaker received her M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Subsequently, she served as a Pediatric AIDS Corps physician with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. She then completed an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a pediatric nutrition fellowship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia through which she was credentialed as a physician nutrition specialist.