What attracted you to the health metrics field?
In high school, I was convinced I wanted to be a doctor. Arriving at college, however, I was exposed to the field of public health and found that I was less interested in biology, chemistry, and the biomedical sciences, and more interested in the social phenomena that lead people to be sick or healthy.
The community health philosophy and the prospect of preventing illness at the population level rather than treating illness at the individual level was particularly appealing to me and convinced me to pursue a career in public health. I was interested in global health, specifically, because my family traveled a great deal and lived overseas when I was little, so I developed a very international perspective from a young age.
My mother founded a nonprofit organization called the Boma Project, which does economic empowerment work in northern Kenya. I was inspired by her compassion and the positive impact she had on lives of others.
At the same time, I was obsessed with math, numbers, puzzles, and problem solving. In high school I participated in math competitions and in college I spent much of my time exploring ways to combine my dorky mathematical persona with my save-the-world persona through internships, coursework, and volunteering.
I found that epidemiology and quantitative health research suited my interests well, and I discovered that I was particularly interested in evaluation work after doing an internship in which I helped to evaluate several education programs at a community center. In my explorations, I found that many people in the field of public health had a strong background in medicine or the social sciences, but that more people who could do high-quality data analysis and quantitative work were needed. Thus, pursuing health metrics allowed me not only to follow my own interests and passions but also to help fulfill an unmet and crucial need in global health.
What work are you doing at IHME?
I am on the Integrated Survellance Systems research team focusing on the Inter-American Development Bank project. We are evaluating a results-based financing initiative called Salud Mesoamérica 2015 Initiative, established by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). IDB is working with the ministries of health in eight Mesoamerican countries to reduce inequalities in the provision of basic health care services for the poorest 20% of their population, with emphasis on reproductive, maternal, and child health.
IHME is involved in the measurement and evaluation of the initiative to determine how key health indicators are changing as a result of Salud Mesoamérica 2015 interventions. We have already carried out some baseline data collection in El Salvador. I am developing and modifying a household survey, based on the instrument used in El Salvador, that will capture the indicators of interest in the other Mesoamerican countries.
This team is exciting, in part because it involves a great deal of primary data collection; the survey will be carried out in about 3,800 households in relevant countries and will cover information related to reproductive and maternal health, communicable diseases, immunization, and child nutrition.
How do you think your experience at IHME will contribute to your future work?
Beyond IHME and the University of Washington, I plan to pursue a PhD in epidemiology and to work either in academia performing global health research and teaching, or possibly work for a global health agency. I hope to design and evaluate health interventions in developing countries so that we are better equipped as a global community to create lasting positive change.
Building on my background in mathematics, I am learning to think more and more critically about research methods – what we know and what we don’t. I expect that the technical skills I develop at IHME will be extremely valuable as I pursue a future career in research, and that IHME’s emphasis on answering the right question, not just the question that’s easy to answer, will lead me to other high-quality research institutions.
I expect that the great network of personal and professional contacts I am developing at IHME will be meaningful and valuable as I continue to explore the field of global health.