ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: MEET FOUR RESEARCH ASSISTANTS GRADUATING FROM START’S TRAINING PROGRAM

This summer, four research assistants graduated from the Strategic Analysis, Research & Training (START) Center’s training program, three of whom completed their graduate degrees. Ana Pereda completed her research assistantship and graduated with a Master of Science (MS) in Health Metrics & Evaluation. Erin Ingle completed her research assistantship and graduated with a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Global Health. Jessie Seiler completed her research assistantship and completed her PhD in Epidemiology. Samantha LeDuc is a PhD candidate in Epidemiology, completed her research assistantship and is now working to complete her dissertation.

Below, learn more about our impressive graduates and the work they completed while engaged with START.

 

ANA PEREDA, MS

Ana Pereda received her Master of Science with the Health Metrics & Evaluation program at the University of Washington. Ana is passionate about using technology and data to guide public health initiatives, and including local leadership in the implementation of solutions. She is currently a Research Scientist at IHME with the Environmental, Occupational and Dietary Risk Factors Team.

Ana worked on five projects during her time with START, acting as the Project Manager for one of them. Below are highlights from two of the projects Ana worked on:

• Advancing Equity and UHNW Philanthropy: The START team conducted key informant interviews and literature review in order to recommend definitions for three core types of equity giving: racial, gender, and SDG-aligned; the team also presented adaptations of these definitions for the India and China geographies, as well as an assessment of where in the philanthropic lifecycle the proposed definitions should be used and measured against.
• 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.
  

Reflecting on her time at START, Ana said,  “My time at START was such a big part of my graduate school experience. I learned a lot about managing client relations, time management and teamwork. From the beginning I was excited to participate in diverse research projects, but I never imagined I was going to learn so much in just one year. However, I think the most special part is the community, the people at START are passionate and driven. It was very easy to connect and form cohesive teams and friends. I leave with a bag full of skills and ready to continue my journey as a public health practitioner.”

 

ERIN INGLE, MPH

Erin Ingle completed her Master of Public Health with the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health. Prior to joining START, Erin served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania where she worked on community based health and income generating projects with her community.  Her research interests encompass a variety of topics in global health including sexual and reproductive health, population studies, and social determinants of health.

Erin worked on nine projects during her two-year engagement at START, acting as the Project Manager for three and was also the START Center’s Flex RA for a quarter. Erin was also a Student Representative for the START RAs. Below are highlights from two of the projects Erin worked on:

• Women’s Leadership in Global Health: The START team conducted a grey literature review to research the existing labor market dynamics and pull key themes and actionable changes that can create environments for women to rise and thrive in positions of leadership in global health.
• Mapping Stakeholders and Best Practices in the Movement for Women’s Leadership: As a part two to the previous women’s leadership project of 2022, the START team was tasked with conducting a literature review and key informant interviews to identify best practices in the movement for women’s leadership including a deep dive on gender quotas. We additionally identified key stakeholders and players in this movement and created a framework to map them by influence and relevance to the BMGF strategy.

Reflecting on her time at START, Erin said, “My experience at START was a highlight of my UW experience. I have made lasting friendships, cultivated new professional skills and developed interests in topics outside of my areas of expertise. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had through START!”

 

JESSICA “JESSIE” SEILER, MPH, PHD

Jessie Seiler received her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later worked with USAID in Senegal, where her focus was on malaria. Jessie has also worked in behavior change communications with domestic and global health non-profits and the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. She earned her MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, where her research interests coalesced around humanitarian emergencies and race- and gender-based violence.

Jessie worked on twenty projects during her four-year engagement at START, acting as the Project Manager for 10 of them. Jessie was also a Student Representative for the START RAs. Below are highlights from two of the projects Jessie worked on:

• Social media behavior change review: In spite of the wealth of evidence regarding effective behavior change techniques when using digital interventions to target residents of high-income countries (HICs), there is limited information of a similar nature for lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The goal of this review was to identify and describe the available literature regarding effective social media-based behavior change interventions within LMICs. We conducted a systematic review in concordance with the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines in order to understand what behavioral interventions have been implemented using social media in LMICs, as well as to characterize the evidence of their effectiveness.
• MNCH Home Births: The START team conducted a literature review, a dataset review, and key informant interviews to research the differential mortality outcomes between facility and home births and related home birth interventions, first in India, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, and then in other geographies in sub-Saharan African and South Asia.

Reflecting on her time at START, Jessie said, “My time at the START Center was a gift. I got to dive deep into research questions that would never have been on my radar otherwise, and I know that work my teams and I did shaped decisions that improved lives around the world through our relationship with the Gates Foundation. I also learned critical professional skills related to consulting, project management, and maintaining client relationships. And of course I got to work with some inspiring and brilliant peers.”

Jessie will be a teaching instructor at the University of Washington’s Department of Epidemiology.

 

SAMANTHA LEDUC, MPH

Samantha LeDuc is a third-year PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Samantha holds an MPH in Epidemiology with a focus in Maternal and Child Health and a B.S. in Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Washington. She worked in microbiology at UWMC before moving to DC. Once there, she briefly worked in consulting, before landing at the National Institutes of Health where she focused on analysis and reporting of the NIH’s reproductive health, women’s health, and pediatric portfolios.Her primary research interests lie in reproductive health, genetic determinants of health, vaccine safety and delivery, and sexually transmitted infections.

Samantha worked on thirteen projects during her time with START, acting as the Project Manager for four of them. Samantha was also a Student Representative for the START RAs. Below are highlights from two of the projects Samantha worked on:

• • Routine Immunization Strengthening in Polio High Risk Geographies (RISP) – Gender: The START team conducted a review on academic and grey literature, as well as key informant interviews, to identify how gender interfaces with routine immunization activities’ in 10 focus geographies. These interactions were not limited to equal coverage of antigens, but included the influence of dynamics at the individual, household, community, health system, and policy level. The identified contributing factors and recommendations for ways to improve coverage by targeting gender-specific barriers were synthesized in a report and a slide deck presented to the team.
  • Surveillance, Burden and Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Low and Middle Income Settings:The purpose of this research project was to understand the current state of STI surveillance, burden and epidemiology for targeted populations, as well as data gaps for the following pathogens: HPV, Syphilis, Gonorrhea (GC), Chlamydia (CT). START team members conducted numerous literature reviews and produced numerous summary reports, data summaries, and maps for pathogens and subpopulations of interest in LMICs globally.

These four START graduates will continue to engage with START’s extensive alumni network, established in 2011. START often invites alumni to share their experiences after graduating from the training program at all-team meetings and, additionally, taps into the alumni network for content expertise on projects. The alumni network is comprised of highly skilled START graduate professionals employed in global health, business, and consulting across disciplines.