News
November 13, 2019
Welcome Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Erica Lokken
Categories: HIV and Co-Infections, Research
Global WACh is pleased to welcome new Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Erica Lokken, to our team at UW! Dr. Lokken successfully defended her PhD in Epidemiology dissertation in August and received a National Institute of Health F32 postdoctoral fellowship in October. This fellowship will support her long-term career goal to become an independent investigator conducting research that informs interventions to improve women’s sexual and reproductive health, including outcomes such as STI/HIV acquisition, fertility, and miscarriage.
The three-year fellowship will allow Dr. Lokken to study how alterations in the vaginal microbiota may partly explain the increased risk of HIV acquisition among pregnant and postpartum women compared to non-pregnant women. Understanding the relationship between high-risk bacterial species and vaginal inflammation across the pregnancy and postpartum periods may inform the development of prevention strategies to reduce risks of reproductive health complications.
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October 18, 2019
Dr. Jillian Pintye awarded grant to evaluate safety of infant PrEP exposure for long-term health outcomes
Dr. Jillian Pintye (Assistant Professor, School of Nursing) received a National Institutes for Health R01 award to lead a new study titled, “Evaluating Infant PrEP Exposure During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding.”
Dr. Pintye and collaborators from Global WACh, International Clinical Research Center, Kenyatta National Hospital, and the University of California, San Francisco, will measure levels of pre- and postnatal pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) exposure and its impact on infant health outcomes. There has not yet been a large-scale safety evaluation of prenatal PrEP use and long-term outcomes beyond 12 months—a feat this new study hopes to achieve.
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October 11, 2019
Researchers present at the International Workshop on HIV & Adolescence in Kenya
Categories: Conferences, HIV, Youth
Last week, Global WACh researchers attended the 3rd International Workshop on HIV & Adolescence from October 2-4 in Nairobi, Kenya. This workshop is an inclusive summit for multidisciplinary experts working with adolescents affected by HIV to share experiences, knowledge, and best practices with the aim of defining a pathway forward for optimizing care.
Adolescents are developmentally at a difficult crossroad, which makes it challenging to attract and sustain adolescents’ focus on maintaining their health. Global WACh is leading multiple projects that put adolescents at the center of strategies and interventions to improve adherence to treatment for long-term health benefits.
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August 19, 2019
Dr. Anjuli Wagner receives grant to improve PrEP delivery for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya
Categories: Awards, HIV, Research
Congratulations, Dr. Anjuli Wagner (Senior Fellow, Global Health) for receiving a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K01 grant, which supports early career researchers in gaining advanced research training and experience.
Dr. Wagner’s new study, “Testing implementation strategies to improve delivery of PrEP for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya,” aims to optimize the scaled-up delivery of PrEP—the daily oral pill to prevent HIV—in Kenya, where PrEP is systemically delivered in some regions during pregnancy. The grant allows Dr. Wagner an opportunity to complete her career development training in implementation science and health economics with strong mentorship and collaborations, and apply it within meaningful research to prevent maternal HIV acquisition in Kenya.
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August 6, 2019
Certificate Student Summer Spotlight: Edgar Calderon
Categories: Certificate Program
Incoming second-year MPH and Global WACh Certificate student, Edgar Calderon, is spending his summer in Vaupés, Colombia completing his Certificate capstone project. His project focuses on evaluating the Colombia Ministry of Health’s (MOH) gender-based violence (GBV) messaging to rural indigenous communities in Vaupés and understanding how community leaders perceive and respond to the messages.
GBV is a human rights violation and global health problem deeply rooted in gender inequalities. Effective messages around the prevention and elimination of GBV should be meaningful, culturally relevant, and well understood by their intended audience. There is growing recognition in research that health-related messages and materials can be more effective when they are culturally tailored and appropriate for diverse populations. (more…)
August 5, 2019
Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie receives award to improve adolescent HIV outcomes
Categories: Awards, HIV and Co-Infections, Youth
We are delighted to announce Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health) is a recipient of the 2019 UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) New Investigator Award! The award offers start-up funding for junior investigators to conduct independent HIV/AIDS research to support future scholarly endeavors.
Dr. Beima-Sofie’s study titled, “Developing a data-informed caregiver intervention to improve adolescent HIV,” will explore perspectives of caregivers of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) and key stakeholders in Kenya to design an intervention that equips caregivers with the knowledge and social support skills to most effectively improve ALHIV health outcomes. (more…)
Dr. Arianna Means awarded 2019 CFAR NIA to improve identification and treatment of malnutrition for HIV-exposed children
Categories: Awards, Gut Health and Child Survival, HIV and Co-Infections
We are pleased to announce Dr. Arianna Means (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health) received a 2019 UW/Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) New Investigator Award! This award offers start-up funds to junior investigators to conduct independent HIV/AIDS research that supports their future scholarly endeavors.
Dr. Means’ project titled “Improved identification and treatment of acute malnutrition for HIV-exposed children in Kenya,” focuses on using implementation science methods to evaluate adherence to HIV nutrition guidelines among HIV-infected and HIV-exposed uninfected (HEU) children under two years of age and identify opportunities for strategic improvement. (more…)
July 26, 2019
Global WACh at IAS 2019
Categories: Conferences, HIV and Co-Infections
This week, more than 10 Global WACh researchers attended the 10th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Science, the world’s most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications. Our researchers also attended and presented at IAS-related events—the 11th International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics and the TB/HIV Symposium: “A new era in TB prevention: Implications for people living with HIV.”
Among all three scientific gatherings, Global WACh had 17 poster abstracts, 2 oral abstracts, and 1 oral symposia abstract accepted to present. Dr. John Kinuthia, a long-time collaborator from Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya, co-chaired the oral abstract discussion titled “HIV testing: Pushing the envelope.”
Read a full list of the accepted abstracts. Scroll below for highlights from the conferences. (more…)
June 28, 2019
Dr. Jillian Pintye named WGHA 2019 Pioneer Rising Leader
Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Pintye (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health), who is the Washington Global Health Alliance’s (WGHA) 2019 Global Health Pioneers Rising Leader!
Dr. Pintye is focused on preventing HIV in pregnant women, who often don’t know their HIV risk and who may be more susceptible to getting infected during pregnancy. She led groundbreaking research to show that PrEP, an HIV prevention medicine, is safe to use during pregnancy. (more…)
June 19, 2019
Research assistant, Claire Gwayi-Chore, receives UW foreign language fellowship for 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…)
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