Dr. Ruel has worked for more than 25 years on policies and programs to alleviate poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition in developing countries. She has published extensively in nutrition and epidemiology journals on topics such as maternal and child nutrition, food based strategies to improve diet quality and micronutrient nutrition, urban livelihoods, food security and nutrition, and the development and validation of simple indicators to measure child feeding, care giving practices and food security. Her current research focuses on the evaluation and strengthening of a wide range of integrated, multi-sectoral development programs in the areas of agriculture, social protection and health, and at building the evidence on their role in reducing maternal and child malnutrition globally.