Lola Arakaki

Lola Arakaki is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She received her MPH in epidemiology from Columbia University and worked on meningococcal disease surveillance studies as a Health Research Training Program intern in the Bureau of Communicable Disease at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH). After receiving her MPH, she transitioned to NYC DOHMH’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS as an evaluation specialist. Her portfolio included monitoring and evaluating programs that linked low-income HIV-infected individuals to care and social services. More recently, Lola was an Institute of Translational Health Sciences TL1 trainee and is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on influenza vaccine effectiveness. Lola's research interests include influenza, HIV/AIDS, vaccines, and infectious disease epidemiology.

Lola had this to say about her time with START, “my time with START was wonderful! I was impressed with how much START invests in training and supporting their research assistants. I learned so much about project management, client interactions, and work in the global health space. The work was incredibly fulfilling, and I loved the community and relationships fostered at START.”

Specific Skills: data analysis, program monitoring and evaluation, literature review