Kenneth Sherr, PhD, MPH, is a Professor in the Department of Global Health and the co-director of the PhD in Global Health Metrics and Evaluation. Dr. Sherr’s research focuses on developing and testing implementation strategies to support data-driven decision making and service integration into the Primary Health Care framework as a means of increasing the coverage and quality of evidence-based interventions. Dr. Sherr has led the development of implementation science training curricula at the University of Washington Department of Global Health, including the development of the PhD program in implementation science in 2012, and directs the Implementation Science Core of the NIH-supported UW/FH Center for AIDS Research. Dr. Sherr’s contributions to the field of implementation include development of the implementation strategy Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach (SAIA).
Arianna Means, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health, where her work focuses on generating operational evidence needed to improve the delivery of routine primary healthcare programs in low and middle-income countries, both within health facilities and in communities. She is currently the implementation science lead for the DeWorm3 Project, a series of large hybrid cluster randomized trials in Benin, India, and Malawi. She designs and manages the DeWorm3 Project’s qualitative research studies, organizational readiness research, operational research process mapping studies, and economic evaluations. She also leads implementation science activities for a multi-country network of studies which aim to improve care for acutely ill children living in countries with limited resources. In addition to the Summer Institute, Dr. Means teaches the online Fundamentals of Implementation Science course, training hundreds of implementation scientists around the world each year, as well as the annual CFAR implementation science mini-course.
Directors from previous years:
Melissa Mugambi, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health. Previously, she served as a Program Officer and Fellow on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Diagnostics Team and as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), covering cross-cutting (multiple infectious disease and reproductive health) diagnostic needs. Dr. Mugambi led research activities in 11 health centers and district hospitals in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to evaluate facility infrastructure, data management systems, patient workflow and testing needs as part of efforts to guide diagnostic investment decisions designed to cut across multiple program strategies. Her current research interests focus on the implementation of health technology interventions and delivery models designed to optimize antenatal care services in low-and-middle income countries and among immigrant populations in the Seattle area.
Bryan Weiner, PhD, is a Professor jointly in the Departments of Global Health and Health Systems and Population Health, and the Director of the Implementation Science Program. Dr. Weiner’s research focuses on the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of innovations and evidence-based practices in health care delivery and other organizational settings. He has studied a wide range of innovations including quality improvement practices, care management practices, patient safety practices, clinical information systems, collaborative service delivery models, cancer prevention and control in communities, and evidence-based diabetes practices. His research has advanced implementation science by creating new knowledge about the organizational determinants of effective implementation, introducing and developing new theories, and improving the state of measurement in the field.