Barnali Chakraborty is a nutritionist by training and has been working in this area for approximately 20 years. She received her PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and her MPH from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dr. Barnali teaches public health and nutrition, qualitative research methods, the capability approach, and health communication. She is a certified regional trainer of ANH (Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health) Academy, UK. Her research interests include assessing and exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of food and nutrition, the food system and its impact on nutrition, and the operationalization of the capability approach in analyzing multidimensional child growth. She conducts mixed-method research, including qualitative and quantitative.

Before joining NSU, she was appointed as an associate scientist at the BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health (BRAC JPGSPH), BRAC University, Bangladesh. At BRAC JPGSPH, she coordinated the "hub" on ‘qualitative research and inquiry’ and the ‘Summative Learning Project.’. She worked for many years at the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC. She also worked at icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) and UNESCO, Dhaka office, Bangladesh. Dr. Barnali has been involved as PI or Co-PI for a number of research projects in collaboration with BRAC's health and nutrition program, Alive and Thrive, FAO, IFAD, the LANSA (Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia) research program consortium, IFPRI, and the World Food Programme (WFP). She authored/coauthored chapters, books, working papers, and manuscripts, many of them published in reputed international peer-reviewed journals.