Lasata Shrestha

Lasata Shrestha earned an MPH from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington in 2024. She graduated magna cum laude from Troy University with a BS in Biological sciences in 2019. Before joining START, she worked as a research scientist at the University of Washington Virology Laboratory investigating the genetic epidemiology and immunology of SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases. She also collaborated with the Kenya Research and Training Center to investigate the impact of herpes virus infection in HIV-infected Kenyan infants. Her research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, maternal and child health, molecular immunology, and community-based surveillance.

Lasata worked on eleven projects during her two-year engagement with START, acting as the Project Manager for two of them.

Below are highlights from two of the projects Lasata worked on:

• Case Study Analysis of Food Fortification Compliance Systems in Latin America: The Nutrition PST at the Foundation engaged with the START Center to build three narrative case studies existing national food fortification programs in Chile, Costa Rica, and/or Guatemala to identify successful archetypes in monitoring and sustaining adequate levels of fortification, and a regional stakeholder analysis to understand regional support of fortification and how it impacts national programs.
• Immunization & Healthcare Gender Barriers in Nigeria: The START team was engaged to conduct a literature review to answer the following questions for Nigeria & neighboring countries: How does gender affect health literacy and knowledge-seeking behavior? How does caregiver gender affect healthcare-seeking behavior for dependent children, including immunizations and other preventive care as well as care for ill children? How does child gender affect caregiver healthcare-seeking behavior for that child?