Lena Acolatse is a nutritionist involved in early childhood development programs, with a keen interest in behavioural assessments and how their use can be improved in developing countries.

She is interested in the different pathways - agriculture-nutrition linkages, parenting and care influences etc - by which children can develop successfully, and how the different actors in the pathways interact.

Lena first came to The Gambia in 2016 on an epigenetic study and fell in love with the peace and quiet in Keneba. She is passionate about children and their development, and since returning to The Gambia in 2018, she’s been working under the BRIGHT project, where she coordinates all project activities, as a Higher Scientific Officer.

She has a special interest in language development and will be presenting on our Language Environment Analysis (LENA), which aims to assess the linguistic environment of infants aged 12, 18 and 24 months.