Alison Levin-Rector

What attracted you to the health metrics field?

I started out as a math major, and I was looking for something that was more applied and less theoretical. I didn’t even know what public health was at the time. I read an article in the Boston Globe that described biostatistics as the number crunchers of the public health world. That sounded really appealing to me – that there would be a place to apply my quantitative interests while contributing to the greater good. When I saw this fellowship, it seemed like the perfect way to take what I had been learning in biostatistics and develop it with a broad global health background.

What work are you doing at IHME?

I’m in the Mortality group and the Evaluations group. For Mortality, I have been working on the Grand Challenge 13 project, which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded to improve methods for estimating population health status. Teams of IHME researchers and collaborators are implementing surveys around the world to capture mortality data. They are asking mothers about the number of children they have had and the number who have died. They are asking siblings about brothers and sisters who have died, and they are using other techniques for capturing mortality trends. I analyzed the data from the first round of surveys, and the second round is in the field right now. I have been applying methods that were developed at IHME to come up with estimates of child, adult, and old age mortality. In Evaluations, I am part of the team that is assessing the trends in HIV prevalence in India and its relationship with the Avahan HIV intervention program.

How do you think your experience at IHME will contribute to your future work?

I am earning my Master of Public Health. Working here has given me the chance to learn from people across the spectrum of public health – data collection, research, analysis, public policy. Even though it is a degree program, you spend a lot less time sitting in a classroom and a lot more time developing real world experience with research. I now have a strong sense of the opportunities that are out there, although I’m not yet sure which I will pursue in the future.

Published Works