Start Center - Strategic Analysis, Research & Training Center

Helena Archer

MPH
PhD Student in Epidemiology, UC Berkeley

Helena Archer is a PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley. Helena graduated with her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Washington in 2020. She received her bachelor's degree in health policy and management at the University of North Carolina. While in school, she completed a hospital administration internship at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and worked as a research assistant in UNC's Department of Social Medicine. She later joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Associate Program and spent two years assigned to the Coconino County Public Health Services District in Flagstaff, Arizona, working in maternal and child health and injury epidemiology. Most recently, as part of Global Health Corps, she has worked on technical systems strengthening as a Health Informatics Officer at Akros, a small non-profit, in Lusaka, Zambia.

Reflecting on her time at START, Helena said, “START has been an exceptional opportunity to stay connected to active global health projects and to continue my training in team and project management, an excellent complement to my MPH training. Working a variety of complex projects has strengthened my analytic capabilities, offered chances to practice my epidemiology skills, and allowed me to learn from the creativity of peers, faculty, and partners, all which have helped me become a more flexible, capable researcher.”