Rebecca Engell

Post-Bachelor Fellow

engellr@uw.edu

BA, Anthropology
Mount Holyoke College

Hometown: Longmeadow, MA

Profile

What attracted you to the health metrics field?

I've wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. As a premed and anthropology student in college, I was exposed to both quantitative and qualitative ways of conceptualizing healing and global health. As I learned more about global health through this dual view point, I became captivated with prevention and the relationship between public health and clinical medicine.

During several health volunteering experiences in South Africa and Zimbabwe, I had the chance to participate in this synergy. As I gained firsthand experience with the many topics I learned about in the classroom, I became frustrated with the lack of metrics and evaluations available to ensure that projects were prioritized properly and that individuals were getting the health care they needed rather than just what was available. IHME gives me an opportunity to develop my analytical skills and contribute to the evaluative process.

What work are you doing at IHME?

My research at IHME focuses on the health profile of American counties. As part of the US County Performance research team, I'm estimating the burden of disease by age and sex for a list of cause-specific mortalities, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, accidents, and communicable diseases such as influenza.

We will also relate these cause-specific mortalities to risk factors such as obesity, smoking, income, and education level. The goal is to give each county a risk score, a type of report card which can inform policymakers about their county’s prevalence of diseases and risk factors. This local information will hopefully motivate health professionals, policymakers, and other citizens improve their health and health system's response to county needs.

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

Through volunteer experiences in America as well as in southern Africa, I have learned about global health on an intimate level in terms of individual lives and individual stories. IHME’s global perspective helps me fit these stories into a larger context.

Such knowledge will help me, as I plan to practice medicine but also as I work with health policymakers in departments of health, nonprofit organizations, or the Centers for Disease Control. The analytical tools I gain here will inform how I maneuver between public health and clinical medicine.

Published Works

Lim SS‡, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Danaei G, Shibuya K, Adair-Rohani H*, Amann M*, Anderson HR*, Andrews KG*, Aryee M*, Atkinson C*, Bacchus LJ*, Bahalim AN*, Balakrishnan K*, Balmes J*, Barker-Collo S*, Baxter A*, Bell ML*, Blore JD*, Blyth F*, Bonner C*, Borges G*, Bourne R*, Boussinesq M*, Brauer M*, Brooks P*, Bruce NG*, Brunekreef B*, Bryan-Hancock C*, Bucello C*, Buchbinder R*, Bull F*, Burnett RT*, Byers TE*, Calabria B*, Carapetis J*, Carnahan E*, Chafe Z*, Charlson F*, Chen H*, Chen JS*, Cheng ATA*, Child JC*, Cohen A*, Colson KE*, Cowie BC*, Darby S*, Darling S*, Davis A*, Degenhardt L*, Dentener* F, Des Jarlais DC*, Devries K*, Dherani M*, Ding EL*, Dorsey ER*, Driscoll T*, Edmond K*, Eltahir Ali S*, Engell RE*, Erwin PJ*, Fahimi S*, Falder G*, Farzadfar F*, Ferrari A*, Finucane MM*, Flaxman S*, Fowkes FGR*, Freedman G*, Freeman MK*, Gakidou E*, Ghosh S*, Giovannucci E*, Gmel G*, Graham K*, Grainger R*, Grant B*, Gunnell D*, Gutierrez HR*, Hall W*, Hoek HW*, Hogan A*, Hosgood III, HD*, Hoy D*, Hu H*, Hubbell BJ*, Hutchings SJ*, Ibeanusi SE*, Jacklyn GL*, Jasrasaria R*, Jonas JB*, Kan H*, Kanis JA*, Kassebaum N*, Kawakami N*, Khang YH*, Khatibzadeh S*, Khoo JP*, Kok C*, Laden F*, Lalloo R*, Lan Q*, Lathlean T*, Leasher JL*, Leigh J*, Li Y*, Lin JK*, Lipshultz SE*, London S*, Lozano R*, Lu Y*, Mak J*, Malekzadeh R*, Mallinger L*, Marcenes W*, March L*, Marks R*, Martin R*, McGale P*, McGrath J*, Mehta S*, Mensah GA*, Merriman TR*, Micha R*, Michaud C*, Mishra V*, Mohd Hanafiah K*, Mokdad AA*, Morawska L*, Mozaffarian D*, Murphy T*, Naghavi M*, Neal B*, Nelson PK*, Nolla JM*, Norman R*, Olives C*, Omer SB*, Orchard J*, Osborne R*, Ostro B*, Page A*, Pandey KD*, Parry CDH*, Passmore E*, Patra J*, Pearce N*, Pelizzari PM*, Petzold M*, Phillips MR*, Pope D*, Pope III, CA*, Powles J*, Rao M*, Razavi H*, Rehfuess EA*, Rehm JT*, Ritz B*, Rivara FP*, Roberts T*, Robinson C*, Rodriguez-Portales JA*, Romieu I*, Room R*, Rosenfeld LC*, Roy A*, Rushton L*, Salomon JA*, Sampson U*, Sanchez-Riera L*, Sanman E*, Sapkota A*, Seedat S*, Shi P*, Shield K*, Shivakoti R*, Singh GM*, Sleet DA*, Smith E*, Smith KR*, Stapelberg NJC*, Steenland K*, Stöckl H*, Stovner LJ*, Straif K*, Straney L*, Thurston GD*, Tran JH*, Van Dingenen R*, van Donkelaar A*, Veerman JL*, Vijayakumar L*, Weintraub R*, Weissman MM*, White RA*, Whiteford H*, Wiersma ST*, Wilkinson JD*, Williams HC*, Williams W*, Wilson N*, Woolf AD*, Yip P*, Zielinski JM*, Lopez AD†, Murray CJL†, Ezzati M.† A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The Lancet. 2012 Dec 13; 380: 2224–2260.

* Authors listed alphabetically

† Joint senior authors

‡ Corresponding author

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