WHO
January 5, 2015
Global WACh WHO Scholar Focus – Annie Hoopes
Categories: students
Have we mentioned we have amazing students?
Annie Hoopes, MD, is one of our Global WACh Certificate Program students and a World Health Organization (WHO) Scholar. She is also a pediatrician and is currently completing a fellowship in adolescent medicine at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Through her collaboration on a systematic review of adolescent sexual and reproductive health services with Dr. Donna Denno, Annie met co-author Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, an international expert in adolescent health services with the WHO. Dr. Chandra-Mouli subsequently invited Annie to the WHO in Geneva to work as an intern in the Division of Reproductive Health and Research during summer 2014. This provided a great opportunity for mentorship forher, as she is interested in promoting adolescent sexual and reproductive health in resource-limited settings. At WHO, Annie worked with the Adolescents and At-Risk Populations Team where she gained an understanding of how agencies like WHO, World Bank, UNICEF, and UN work in partnership to promote sexual and reproductive health.
We want to ensure that ever-shrinking resources for adolescent health are being directed toward programs with proven adolescent health and psychosocial benefits.”
Annie’s passion to ensure adolescents get the resources they need was central to her task at WHO of reviewing the effectiveness of programs in countries implementing adolescent-friendly services. She began with systematic review of adolescent health initiatives in India. She also studied how adolescents are addressed in national reproductive health policies, using South Africa as a case study.
Annie is back in Seattle now for her final year of fellowship and public health training and is looking forward to applying these experiences for the next steps in her career.
When we know 2.1 million adolescents age 10-19 are living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries and one in five women worldwide has a child before age 18, it is undeniable that our health systems must ensure that age- and context-appropriate preventive and treatment interventions reach this vulnerable population”
Keep up the great work, Annie!