June 6, 2025
Global WACh hosts annual Student Poster Symposium highlighting graduate student research
On Wednesday, June 4th, Global WACh hosted its annual Student Poster Symposium to highlight graduate student research affiliated with our center. Dozens of UW faculty, staff, students attended to learn about 17 students’ projects that fulfilled academic capstone and dissertation requirements, while providing opportunities to gain knowledge and build marketable skillsets in the field of maternal-child health.
The majority of presenters are enrolled in the Global WACh Graduate Certificate Program and are graduating in the 2025 academic year. The certificate program offers opportunities for additional learning about woman, adolescent, and child health topics through 12 credits of coursework and a 90-hour capstone. We wish these students the very best in their future endeavors as public health professionals.
Additional posters featured master and doctoral degree capstones and dissertations that led to major advancements in the scientific field and were featured at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) held in San Francisco in March. CROI is considered the world’s leading HIV research meeting that attracts thousands of researchers and clinicians from around the globe – and is a fantastic stage to showcase our emerging early-stage researchers.
See the full list of participating students and their poster titles below. Click here to view the photo gallery courtesy of the Department of Global Health Communications team.
| Student Name | Academic Program | Poster Title | Presented at Scientific Conference (if applicable) |
| Morgan Aurelio | MPH in Global Health | Advancing Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in Kenya: Deliverables for the mTUNE study | |
| Emily Begnel | Current Research Scientist, Global WACh
Research completed as part of PhD in Epidemiology dissertation (2024) |
HIV Exposure Affects Gut Virome Richness but Not Diversity Among Kenyan Infants | Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection (CROI) (March 2025) |
| Tessa Concepcion | Current Research Coordinator, Global WACh
Research completed as part of PhD in Global Health Implementation Science dissertation (2025) |
Impact of Offering PrEP Choice on HIV Incidence in High-Risk Pregnant Women in Kenya | Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection (CROI) (March 2025) |
| Edith Dale | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Network-Based Testing Services (NBTS) Toolkit: A WHO Initiative for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, and STI Prevention | |
| Rara Dethan | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Establishment of Child Health Implementation Science Research and Evaluation Support (CHIMES) Unit | |
| Samira Farah | MPH in Health Systems and Population Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Supporting the implementation of the Problem Management Plus (PM+) intervention in the IPMH (Integrated Perinatal Mental Health) study in Western Kenya | |
| Tessa Fujisaki | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Neah Bay Narratives: A Makah Nation High School Photovoice Project | |
| Amaya Gatling | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Implementing a Low-Cost Blood pH Monitor to Improve Birth Asphyxia Care in Hospitals in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda | |
| Laurén Gómez | Current PhD Student in Epidemiology and Senior Research Coordinator (Global WACh) | Prenatal PrEP Exposure and Language Development Among Children at 5 Years | Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection (CROI) (March 2025) |
| Emmalie Griswold | MPH in Health Systems and Population Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Stay or Go? Telehealth vs. Travel for Medication Abortion Services: Insights from Kansas and Texas | |
| Eamonn McGonigle | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Age of Sexual Initiation Among Adolescent Transgender Women: A Literature Review | |
| Jerusha Nyabiage Mogaka | Predoctoral Scholar in School of Nursing | STI Testing Is Associated With Lower PrEP Discontinuation Among Women Initiating PrEP in Pregnancy | Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection (CROI) (March 2025) |
| Hana Neutz | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Assessing Community Acceptability of the Health Champion Program to Reduce Under 5 Childhood Mortality in Rural Niger State, Nigeria | |
| Lisa Orii | PhD Candidate in Computer Science and Engineering
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Strengthening Digital Systems for Newborn Nutrition & Human Milk Banking | |
| Ananditha Raghunath | PhD in Computer Science and Engineering | Understanding the Imaginaries and Realities of Integrating AI-enabled Diagnostics in Nepal | |
| Thania Solar Del Valle | MPH in Global Health
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Marasmus vs Kwashiorkor: A Systematic Review of Outpatient Treatment Outcomes | |
| Kat Wright | Doctor of Nursing Practice – Population Health and Systems Leadership
Global WACh Certificate Program |
Case Control Study Analysis Evaluating Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection During Pregnancy Among Pregnant People in King County, WA |