students
August 11, 2020
Tikhala Itaye, Global WACh Certificate student, in summer internship to aid gender equity strategies
Categories: Certificate Program, students
This summer, Tikhala Itaye, a MPH Global Health and Global WACh Certificate student, began an internship with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). As a Summer Associate, Tikhala is supporting the Foundation’s Gender Equality Special Initiative (GESI) team to deepen an understanding of how existing program investments and activities affect or are affected by gender-based violence (GBV)—one of the most widespread human rights abuses that disproportionately affects girls and women. Ending gender inequality in all forms is one of the World Health Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tikhala’s efforts will provide strategic direction on integrating GBV prevention and response across the Foundation’s program cycle and investments. (more…)
Q&A with Emily Robson: Perspectives as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic
Categories: Certificate Program, COVID-19, students
University of Washington students are rising to the occasion to care for the most vulnerable populations during Seattle’s COVID-19 outbreak. One of these students is Emily Robson, an incoming 2nd year Doctorate of Nurse Practice student in the Population Health Nursing Track and Global WACh Graduate Certificate student. Emily is spending her summer as a full-time Registered Nurse at King County Public Health’s COVID-19 Isolation/Quarantine Centers. These sites provide supervised care to symptomatic or COVID-positive individuals who cannot quarantine or recover in their own home, or do not have a home. These spaces support the community by providing a place of care and slow the spread of the virus to others.
We asked Emily to share her experience as an Isolation/Quarantine nurse and the lessons learned as she courageously and compassionately works on the frontlines of a public health emergency.
July 2, 2020
Meet the 2020 Graduate Summer Research Assistants
Categories: students
Every quarter, UW graduate student research assistants get involved on our projects to develop standard operating procedures, support the participant recruitment process, and conduct data collection and analysis activities that are crucial to the success of the study design, process, and outcomes. These opportunities allow student researchers to learn about the institutional research landscape, and to develop academic depth and skills in their chosen discipline. Meet the 10 students working on Global WACh’s research portfolio this summer! Click on their names to read their full biographies. (more…)
March 6, 2020
Winter Quarter Certificate Student Spotlight: Kristen Trivelli, Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner Student
Categories: Certificate Program, Family Planning, students
Kristen Trivelli, a third-year Family Nurse Practitioner doctoral student in the School of Nursing and current Global WACh Certificate student, traveled to Zimbabwe in summer of 2018 to complete her certificate capstone on breastfeeding education. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the benefits associated with breastfeeding so valuable that it is the recommended feeding method for mothers and infants worldwide for the first six months of the infants’ lives. However, current research shows exclusive breastfeeding rates are low in Zimbabwe. With the support of the Department of Global Health’s GO-Health Fellowship, Kristen sought to understand how breastfeeding education is provided from the perspective of nurses, and how parents receive this education in Zimbabwe. She designed and led her own qualitative study and hopes to share her findings with stakeholders to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates in the country. (more…)
February 3, 2020
Predoctoral Research Fellow, Claire Rothschild, receives NICHD fellowship award focused on women’s reproductive health in Kenya
Categories: Awards, Contraception, Family Planning, students
Claire Rothschild, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology, received a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) F31 pre-doctoral fellowship to support her dissertation research on using mobile technology to improve family planning data and outcomes in Kenya. In collaboration with PATH-Kenya and Kenyatta National Hospital, Claire’s research focuses on better understanding when and why women discontinue and switch methods of contraception, with the specific goal of identifying factors that predict dissatisfaction and early discontinuation of contraceptive methods among women who do not wish to become pregnant. (more…)
December 6, 2019
Research Assistant, Anna Larsen, awarded grants to guide journey towards an independent maternal-child HIV research career
Categories: Awards, HIV and Co-Infections, PrEP, students
Anna Larsen (second right) with PrIMA Kenya-based study staff members (left to right): Joseph Sila (Data manager), Daniel Odinga (Laboratory Manager), Salphine Watoyi (Data Manager), Marwa Motongori (Data Manager), and Harison Lagat (Study Coordinator)
Anna Larsen, second year PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and Global WACh research assistant, is the recipient of two notable funding awards that will shape her academic journey towards an independent research career in maternal-child HIV. She is one of 11 student awardees of the Department of Global Health’s 2019 Thomas Francis Jr. Fellowship and one of an even more limited group of awardees of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) prestigious F31 predoctoral training fellowship to support her dissertation research. The awards provide funding support for fieldwork activities and dedicated supervised research training. (more…)
November 21, 2019
Global WACh Research Assistant and DGH Thomas Francis Jr. Fellowship recipient, Hannah Atlas, conducts field research for children’s health in Nepal
Categories: Children, Nutrition, Schools, students
Hannah Atlas (far right) with Department of Community Programs Health Workers from Dhulikhel Hospital in Nepal.
Second-year MPH in Global Health and Global WACh Certificate student, Hannah Atlas, is a very familiar face around Global WACh. Prior to enrolling at UW in the fall of 2018, Hannah worked as a study coordinator for the Toto Bora Trial and ABCD Study led by Drs. Judd Walson and Patty Pavlinac, co-directors of Global WACh’s Gut Health and Child Survival (GHCS) scientific priority area, for 2 years. She also coordinated a small pilot study aimed at assessing the composition of the gut microbiome among HIV-exposed children and worked with Dr. Donna Denno, a technical advisor for GHCS, supporting the coordinating body of the Environmental Enteric Dysfunction Biopsy Consortium. As a graduate student, Hannah has continued working with our investigators on two clinical trials of azithromycin, an oral antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, to reduce mortality and morbidity of discharged hospitalized children under age five.
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June 19, 2019
Global WACh research assistant, Claire Gwayi-Chore, receives UW foreign language fellowship to build French language proficiency in implementation science research
Categories: Awards, Research, students
Claire Gwayi-Chore, PhD student in Global Health Implementation Science and an esteemed Global WACh research assistant, is a recipient of the 2019-2020 UW Canadian Studies Center’s Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship to support critical French language training in combination with area studies courses.
Her fellowship will help initiate an independent research project evaluating systemic barriers and facilitators to primary health care access by francophone Africans within Canada’s Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), which provides health care coverage to all asylum-seeking refugees. The lack of evidence surrounding the understanding of these systemic barriers that refugees experience is a major threat to the health of this vulnerable population. As an immigrant from Kenya, this issue is of personal importance to Claire, and her choice of study stems from her interest with the current agenda set forth by Canada’s administration that prioritizes the health and safety of all refugees entering the country. (more…)
January 30, 2019
Certificate Student Winter Spotlight: Jaclyn Escudero
Categories: Certificate Program, students
Second-year MPH in Global Health and Global WACh Certificate Student, Jaclyn Escudero, had an exciting year as a research assistant for Global WACh’s “PrEP Adherence Among AGYW: A Multidimensional Evaluation” study (an extension of the PrIYA and PrIMA studies), which is funded by the NIH and led by Drs. Grace John-Stewart (Global WACh Director) and Pamela Kohler (Associate Professor, Global Health and Psychosocial and Community Health). Jaclyn assisted Dr. Jillian Pintye (Research Fellow, Global Health) in developing one of two research protocols to evaluate the factors that influence PrEP uptake, continuation, and adherence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Kenya.
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January 28, 2019
Global WACh Student Researchers Feature Posters at the 2019 Global Healthies
Categories: Awards, Research, students
Photo credit: UW School of Public Health
On January 23rd, the University of Washington Department of Global Health held its annual Global Healthies Opportunities Fair and Poster Competition, which seeks to strengthen connections and start new collaborations for better global health impacts. It was an exciting evening with a large presence of Global WACh faculty, staff, students and colleagues engaging around our Center’s research and training opportunities.
This year, 12 Global WACh research assistants and Certificate students competed in the poster competition across four distinct categories (Discovery and Development, Education and Training, Implementation and Application, and Public Health Service and Direct Care). Research assistant, Danae Black (PhD Candidate in Epidemiology), had the winning poster in the Public Service and Direct Care category! Her research unveiled new data in an area not well studied—the burden of tuberculosis (TB) and utilization of TB preventative therapies for HIV-infected adolescents in Kenya. These therapies entail daily oral medication taken for up to six months without interruption to effectively prevent TB. Danae’s findings identified frequent medication shortages across 101 HIV care facilities, meaning that a large number of patients exposed to TB have started therapy, but few have completed it. The gaps leave patients, whose immune systems are weakened by HIV, at higher risk of developing potentially severe forms of TB. The impact of Danae’s findings can help researchers better understand the current TB prevention efforts in Kenya and find ways to systematically improve health outcomes in this vulnerable population.
We are so proud of all our student researchers and their achievements. Well done! (more…)
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