PhD in Global Health—Metrics Track Students

Before starting the PhD program in 2022, Horacio finished the Global Health Metrics MPH program at UW. During his MPH, he worked as a Research Assistant at I-TECH supporting the M&E data collection system for a HIV Care and Treatment program in Zimbabwe. His work and interests focus on the intersection of technology, data, and public health, and how to better use data to measure health outcomes in middle- and low-income countries. Prior to joining UW, in Peru where he is originally from, he worked helping the design of a maternal and child health mHealth program aided by Community Health Workers in the Amazon Jungle. His prior Medical (MD) and Biomedical informatics (MSc) training has enabled him to contextually understand and work with public health data. During his PhD Horacio is aiming to develop new methods to map health inequities and explore disease distribution in underserved populations.

Before joining the PhD program in 2024, Lukas served as a research scientist and data analyst at the Evidence-based Public Health Unit of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s national public health institute. During his tenure at RKI, he contributed to several international research projects, including assessing the impact of COVID-19 on health systems in Guinea and Sierra Leone, evaluating vaccine readiness in Guinea, and analyzing the burden of viral hepatitis in Ukraine. His responsibilities encompassed survey design and implementation, statistical analysis, and training researchers in quantitative methods and programming. Lukas’ research interests focus on enhancing the quality of global health data, particularly routine health information system data, and leveraging novel data sources to better measure and predict population health challenges. He holds an MSc in Social and Economic Data Science from the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Julie joined the PhD program in fall 2021, after working as a research assistant at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and finishing her master of science in global health and population at the Harvard School of Public Health. At Harvard, Julie focused on estimating health and demographic indicators across small geographic units in India to highlight subnational health and wealth inequities. Julie also conducted research in Brazil, where she investigated inequality in life expectancy by socioeconomic status in Rio de Janeiro. Julie is currently working to develop population forecast models at IHME, with a focus on fertility forecast models. During her PhD, she aims to expand her research to incorporate different policy scenarios in population projections and assess the impact of population policies in low fertility settings.

Floria Nyandaya is a physician-scientist with a diverse background in primary care, healthcare management, infectious disease surveillance, non-communicable disease (NCD) research and digital health technologies. Prior to her PhD in Health Metrics Science, she worked as an independent research consultant on multicountry women’s health research projects and as a Research Fellow and Program Manager for Hurone AI where she contributed to advancing culturally sensitive AI-driven cancer care solutions for underserved populations in Africa and Latin America.

Through her PhD, Floria aims to develop validation and prediction models that leverage generative AI while evaluating their cost-effectiveness and impact to advance NCD research in addressing health disparities and improving population health amidst Africa’s epidemiological transition. 

Floria holds a medical degree from the University of Nairobi and an MPH from the University of Washington, where she was awarded the Fogarty Cardiometabolic Research Training Fellowship and the Thomas Francis Jr. Global Health Travel Fellowship, gaining global health experience in the U.S., Nigeria, and Kenya.

Pyone is an epidemiologist with more than eight years of experience in public health research and policy. She is passionate about advancing health equity by using actionable local data. Pyone began her PhD program in Autumn 2025. Before starting her doctoral studies, she served as an Epidemiologist at the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), where she analyzed public health data to identify racial/ethnic and geographic disparities. Prior to her work at DOH, she worked at the Urban Indian Health Institute, one of twelve Tribal Epidemiology Centers providing epidemiologic assistance to urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Originally from Myanmar (Burma), Pyone earned her bachelor’s degree in Community Health in Myanmar in 2016. She then spent over five years from 2016 to 2021 working with international non-governmental organizations on multi-country, evidence-based policy programs to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Myanmar. During her PhD, Pyone aims to expand her expertise in small area estimation methods to generate local-level data that can improve understanding of health disparities and guide efficient resource allocation to address NCDs in low-resource settings.

Paola joined the PhD program in 2022, after working as a researcher and data analyst at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). During her time at IHME, Paola worked on estimating global dementia spending, development assistance for health, and funding and services needed to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) around the world. Prior to joining IHME, Paola was awarded an Erasmus mundus scholarship to pursue a master’s in public health in Spanish, French, and Polish institutions. In addition to her multi-cultural background her experience with health economics, public health, and biology have allowed her to contribute to research teams working on diverse topics including an economic evaluation of a backyard poultry intervention to reduce stunting in Ghana and an effort to estimate cost-effectiveness ratios for common pharmacological interventions in resource limited settings. During her time as a PhD student Paola is interested in understanding the practices that make health systems stronger and better suited to meet the needs of the populations they server—with special interest in continuity of care following a non-communicable disease diagnosis.

Aisha is a global health researcher interested in impact evaluations, cost effectiveness, resource tracking and measurement of health inequalities. Aisha’s research career started at Save the Children, Malawi where she managed a cluster randomized controlled trial of an integrated child nutrition intervention and its impact evaluation. After Save the Children, Aisha was an independent research consultant with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins University and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Before joining the PhD program, Aisha worked at the University of Western Ontario, Canada focusing on systematic reviews and economic analyses of Indigenous maternal and child health interventions. She holds an MSc in Global Health Implementation and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Demography from the University of Malawi.