Samantha LeDuc

Samantha LeDuc is a PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Sam 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. Sam 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. Sam worked as a Summer Associate at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she focused on identifying best practices in delivering routine immunization services to subnational areas at high risk of polio. Sam’s 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.