Alejandra joined the PhD program in 2020, after working as a Research Analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and as a consultant for the World Bank’s Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC). During her time at IFPRI, Alejandra worked primarily on large scale impact evaluations of maternity health and nutrition, and women’s empowerment programs in India and Bangladesh. Her economics and public policy training has allowed her to work on a diversity of topics in different contexts, ranging from financial inclusion, social protection and nutrition specific impact evaluations in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Ghana. During the PhD program Alejandra is interested on studying social determinants of health, with a specific focus on gender inequality in health.

Adrien studied economics and statistics in France. After an internship in India and a one-year experience at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, his research interest and curriculum shifted toward public health and impact evaluation. Before joining the PhD program in Global Health – Metrics and Implementation Science, Adrien worked in Paris at the Gustave Roussy Institute - Premier European Cancer Center – as a biostatistician in clinical trials. Adrien is particularly interested in antibiotic resistance, both at the ecological (mathematical modeling of acquisition) and at the population level (medico-economic evaluation of its burden). He also has a vivid interest for cancer screening evaluation, especially in low-income countries.

Austin’s research interests include infectious disease modeling, model comparison, incorporation of uncertainty from model specification into estimates, and value of information analysis. Austin is starting the Global Health Metrics PhD program after completing the three year Post-Bachelor Fellowship (PBF) program at IHME and UW. During the PBF program, Austin worked on HIV burden estimation for the Global Burden of Disease, as well as the development of methods for forecasting HIV burden into the future. His current work includes research translation for partners of IHME and incorporation of novel methods into the HIV burden estimation process. Austin aspires to develop methods and tools that enable policy makers to confidently execute decisions that are best supported by available evidence.

Suman is interested in understanding the relationships between sociodemographic, programmatic and dietary changes, and health/nutrition outcomes, across multiple contexts. Suman joined the PhD program in Global Health Metrics and Implementation Science in 2018 after working as a Research Analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute for seven years. During that time, he was involved in the evaluation of several large-scale randomized controlled trials, observational studies and costing exercises. His published research investigates the impact of large scale social protection programs on poverty, maternal and child health and nutrition. After obtaining his doctorate, he plans to pursue a career in academics and research, where he aims to focus on comprehensively evaluating the determinants of chronic malnutrition/disease in populations and connect scientific evidence to improve policies and programs. His goal is to contribute to the growing evidence base that informs the nexus between economic variables, nutritional intake and health that can help effectively address poverty, malnutrition and disease globally.

Joey is interested in research pertaining to environmental epidemiology, in particular the study of ambient air pollution and other kinds of anthropogenic exposures. He joined the PhD program in Global Health Metrics and Implementation Science in 2017, after working at IHME for six years. He is a graduate of IHME’s Post-Bachelor Fellowship program, where he conducted a thesis project on spatial interpolation of air pollution in China and earned his MPH from the University of Washington. His undergraduate studies were also conducted at the UW and focused on environmental science. Joining IHME as a student assistant in 2011 and working his way up to a researcher position allowed him the opportunity to be involved in a variety of research efforts relevant to IHME’s mission of global comparative analyses. Most recently, he has been leading the production of environmental and occupational risk factors estimates for the 2016 iteration of the Global Burden of Disease.

Nancy Fullman, MPH joined the PhD program in Global Health Metrics and Implementation Science in September 2017 after working at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in multiple roles. During her time at IHME, Nancy conducted research on tracking malaria intervention coverage and evaluating the impact of child health interventions in Zambia and Uganda; worked on a multi-country research initiative analyzing drivers of health system performance; and supported various research areas in the Global Burden of Disease study, particularly around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She also received her MPH in Health Metrics and Evaluation from the University of Washington in 2011. Nancy’s research interests primarily involve assessing various components of health system performance, especially around health service delivery and intervention coverage; measurement of the health-related SDGs; and impact evaluations.

Erin is particularly interested in improving data collection, analysis, and dissemination in emergency, humanitarian, and post-conflict settings. Additionally, Erin is interested in time series analysis, forecasting, and spatiotemporal modeling. Prior to joining the PhD program, Erin spent four years at the CDC working as a statistician in their Emergency Response and Recovery Branch within the Division of Global Health Protection, providing assistance for all phases of a project, from survey design through data collection, to analysis and publication. During that time, Erin worked extensively in Haiti on a range of subject matters, from maternal mortality to HIV surveillance through cholera and diarrheal diseases. Following graduation, Erin would like to continue working to identify the most appropriate manner for monitoring health status and disease prevalence in emergency settings in order to mitigate the most pressing health concerns to vulnerable populations.

Gregoire studied statistics and development economics in France, and has been interested in the frontier between measurement, policy design and implementation. Working for five years in different sub-Saharan African countries’ health information systems, Gregoire witnessed firsthand how little health policies rely on a good understanding of available data. His research explores new ways to mobilize data routinely collected in health systems to inform management and strategic planning. This data is often overlooked because of availability and quality issues, even though substantial investments are made to collect it. This raises efficiency and equity issues, and his hope is that increased comprehension and use of this routine data by people working in health systems can improve their commitment and ability to collect the data they need. After graduation, he wants to keep working on strengthening the capacity of decision makers in low-resource countries to use data to design home-grown health interventions adapted to their populations’ needs.

Modhurima is interested in applying and developing methods for estimating disease burden from mental and substance use disorders with a focus on low-resource settings. She has a background in healthcare analytics and has worked in geriatric mental health research laboratories. Modhurima holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics and Psychology and an MPH in Behavioral Health Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh.

With a background in statistics and demography, William’s research interests thus far have been influenced by his work at the Medical Research Council in South Africa. As a lead analyst within the country’s 2nd National Burden of Disease study it became clear that accurate and meaningful health information could not be derived directly when using the national vital registration data. Such information is crucial for developing national health policy that can be used to improve health. Generating improved estimates required developing various indirect estimation techniques. William hopes to build on this experience to further improve on the quality of the nation’s health data. He anticipates that his PhD dissertation will focus on small area estimation methods and their application in the measurement of burden of disease for South Africa and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa

Matthew received his Master’s in Public Health from University of Washington, where he also completed the Post-Bachelor Fellowship at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Upon completion of his MPH, Matthew’s background in program evaluation and econometric analysis enabled him to consultant for the global health policy teams and global health program monitoring systems for think-tanks, foundations and non-profit implementing institutions. Before returning to University of Washington, Mr. Schneider completed a two year fellowship with the Global Health Fellows Program as a Costing Technical Advisor with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). As a technical advisor, Matthew collected, analyzed, and used costing data to improve the efficiency of the US Government’s HIV programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. By returning to complete his doctorate at the University of Washington, Matthew will further his interest in the ability to improve health systems through allocative efficiencies and measuring the impact of health systems strengthening programs.

Reed is an epidemiologist interested in the causal factors that drive disease patterns over time. His research at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation focuses on counterfactuals, predicting what a population’s disease burden would be under hypothetical scenarios. For example, for his dissertation, he aims to predict the potential outcomes of cancer and cardiovascular disease interventions. Reed has contributed to the Global Burden of Disease study and its various applications since 2014, including cost-effectiveness analysis and forecasting. He enjoys exploring how methods from other disciplines, like econometrics and machine learning, might advance the field of public health. Reed worked previously as an epidemiologist at the Washington State Department of Health and has taken several opportunities to support local research in Latin America and Africa. He received a MPH degree in epidemiology from the University of Michigan in 2011.