MURIEL KONNE

Muriel Konne is a PhD student in the Department of Global Health’s Implementation Science program at the University of Washington. She received her MPH in Health Policy and Management from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and a BA in Biochemistry and Journalism from The University of Iowa. Prior to beginning her PhD, she served as a subject matter expert with the CDC's COVID-19 response, supporting countries in assessing behavioral factors impacting vaccine uptake and demand in resource limited settings. In this role, she also assisted counties to build capacity to develop a robust information management system that address gaps in knowledge, trust, and safety of vaccines. In collaboration with Ministries of Health, regulatory authorities, and multilateral partners, she provided technical leadership in the integration of vaccine related events plans with an aim to monitor, detect, and respond to potential adverse events and safety concerns following vaccine introduction. She supported the co-development, implementation, and evaluation of a peer-to-peer behavioral intervention, drawing on motivational interviewing principles, to improve vaccine confidence and uptake amongst caregivers of children in Somali diaspora populations living in Minnesota and Kenya. Prior to this role, she served as a behavioral scientist with CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch where her work focused on understanding behavioral factors of contact lens users that lead to corneal infections and translating the evidence to effective health education materials.