What attracted you to the health metrics field?
Before coming to IHME, I spent three summers implementing water sanitation projects in Mumbai, India. I worked in houses and schools trying to make low-cost solutions work on a wider scale. The experience opened my eyes to how important targeted health interventions are, for individuals, families, and society as a whole. It also gave me a glimpse of the complexity of global health work. That experience made me want to explore the same issues from a broader perspective. As an economics student, I wanted to find a way to use quantitative analysis to investigate and inform future health interventions and policies.
What work are you doing at IHME?
I am on the Social Determinants research team, investigating whether there is a causal relationship between a mother’s education level and the survival of her children. Previous research at IHME and elsewhere has shown that there is a significant association between educational attainment among women of maternal age and reduced childhood mortality. The more schooling mothers achieve, the better the odds that their children will be healthy. We have examined that association for nearly every country. Now we are looking at data within each country to see if the association holds. Do countries show big differences across states and provinces? Does maternal education have a stronger correlation with child mortality in one part of the country than another? At the same time, I am working to generate estimates of wealth, poverty, and inequality for every country. We ultimately want to produce a measure for comparing purchasing power across countries.
How do you think your experience at IHME will contribute to your future work?
Through IHME, I have learned how to analyze large amounts of data. Prior to coming here, I had never worked with the sheer volume of information that we are trying to assess. Beyond the number crunching, I also am learning how to test the validity of studies and reports. We try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of methods that have been used in the past, and we’re always looking for gaps in the data that we might be able to fill. In the future, I want to work for a large international organization such as the United Nations or the World Bank so I can continue using these skills to help make decisions about how to effectively improve health and other broad social indicators.
