![\"\"](\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalwach\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Kim-Headshot.jpg\")
Despite evidence of safety and effectiveness of maternal vaccines administered during pregnancy, the public\u2019s confidence of vaccines and the healthcare systems delivering them remain low in many regions, including in Washington (WA) State.<\/p>\n
The WA State Department of Health (WA DOH) and global health nonprofit PATH recently established a partnership to improve local public health outcomes \u2013 including increasing maternal immunization and uptake of recommended vaccines \u2013 by leveraging global health best practices.<\/p>\n
During Spring 2025, Angella Kim, a 2nd<\/sup> year MPH student in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health (HSPOP) and Global WACh Graduate Certificate Student<\/strong>, supported activities to help identify what practices can be used globally to locally and inform the partnership\u2019s maternal immunization programming.<\/p>\n This work fulfilled the certificate\u2019s 90-hour capstone requirement intended to contribute to students\u2019 academic and professional development as it relates to women, adolescent, and child health. She conducted a rapid scoping review exploring how Community Health Workers (CHWs) support maternal immunization counseling and communication in low- and middle-income countries, as well as among vulnerable populations in high-income countries.<\/p>\n Findings highlighted that CHWs are trusted sources of information for pregnant individuals and families, but often face challenges such as limited training, lack of translated educational materials, and insufficient resources. Evidence based strategies integrating CHWs found that the use of contextually tailored materials, digital tools, and social media campaigns available in multiple languages helped improve maternal immunization confidence and uptake.<\/p>\n Angella presented findings biweekly to WA DOH team members and developed presentation slide decks for internal and external WA DOH stakeholders that included her findings and recommendations on how to address CHW barriers in reaching local populations that have indicated vaccine hesitancy.<\/p>\n Angella worked with Dr. Sadaf Khan (PATH and UW Department of Global Health), PATH\u2019s communications team, Hana Neutz (Global WACh Certificate alum), and WA DOH\u2019s Global to Local Program team. The capstone experience reinforced Angella\u2019s passion for working with immigrant and refugee populations and exposed to her what collaborative, evidence-based approaches to public health can look like. She hopes to continue contributing her skills in mixed-methods research, evaluation, and communication to health systems or government organizations focused on expanding primary care and vaccine access for underserved communities.<\/p>\n Angella\u2019s capstone will be featured at the Global WACh Student Poster Symposium in Spring 2026. Please join us to learn more about her project along with projects by other graduating students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite evidence of safety and effectiveness of maternal vaccines administered during pregnancy, the public\u2019s confidence of vaccines and the healthcare systems delivering them remain low in many regions, including in Washington (WA) State. The WA State Department of Health (WA DOH) and global health nonprofit PATH recently established a partnership to improve local public health…<\/p>\n