  Particles in a curved space are classically described by a nonlinear sigma
model action that can be quantized through path integrals. The latter require a
precise regularization to deal with the derivative interactions arising from
the nonlinear kinetic term. Recently, for maximally symmetric spaces,
simplified path integrals have been developed: they allow to trade the
nonlinear kinetic term with a purely quadratic kinetic term (linear sigma
model). This happens at the expense of introducing a suitable effective scalar
potential, which contains the information on the curvature of the space. The
simplified path integral provides a sensible gain in the efficiency of
perturbative calculations. Here we extend the construction to models with N = 1
supersymmetry on the worldline, which are applicable to the first quantized
description of a Dirac fermion. As an application we use the simplified
worldline path integral to compute the type-A trace anomaly of a Dirac fermion
in d dimensions up to d = 16.
