Sydney Garfinkel

Sydney holds an MPA from the UW Evan School of Public Policy and Governance and a BA double major in International Studies and French and a minor in Global Health from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Prior to her graduate studies, Sydney worked at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States federal foreign aid agency. At MCC, Sydney built and implemented the monitoring and evaluation framework for a joint MCC-PEPFAR data capacity and health systems strengthening project in Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania. Sydney was also an intern at PATH where she translated data and evidence into policy recommendations for a maternal, newborn, and child health nutrition project. Sydney has experience working as an RA in the Department of Global Health on a neglected tropical disease project with the Global WACh team. Sydney is motivated by working with global health organizations and stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries, and translating data and evidence in to actionable, locally-driven policy, messaging and impact.

Sydney worked on five projects during her one-year engagement at START, acting as the Project Manager for three of them. Below are highlights from two of the projects Sydney worked on:

• Gender and the Primary Healthcare System: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) was interested in broadly understanding the application of patient-facing tools that increase digital access for marginalized groups, including girls and women, to primary health care (PHC) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This research demonstrates the learning and key results from expanding digital access in LMICs, and how to avoid further neglecting marginalized groups. The report uses insights from other sectors who have pioneered approaches to increase digital access to service delivery in their sectors and how we can translate this to the PHC sector. Finally, the report provides key recommendations for how to make digitization more gender equitable in LMICs. Data collection was completed using a literature review and key informant interviews (KIIs).
  
• Giving to Advance Equity: The purpose of this research project was to explore the body of existing research and literature that exists on giving to racial equity and gender equality (G/RE), in addition to current approaches by existing players in this space. The START team conducted a semi-structured literature review and submitted a presentation and excel file with relevant resources aligned with the three project goals: 1. To identify existing literature focused on how or why people give (or don’t give) to G/RE, and what barriers may exist to giving, 2. To develop a landscape of curators, products, and tools that steer people towards giving to G/RE, and 3. To draw out conclusions and form recommendations based on the body of research and tools that exist, in order to inform the Philanthropic Partnerships Team’s strategy at BMGF.

Reflecting on her experience with START, Sydney said, “START was a particularly special opportunity that I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of for a year. I feel grateful for the relationships I made — both professionally and personally — with the staff and clients of START, and it helped me build community in Seattle. It was a joy to work with a group of students who feel equally passionate as me about improving social outcomes both domestically and abroad.”

Sydney currently works at Gates Ventures as a Manager of Health & Life Sciences.