Andrew Kent, MPH 2006
Program Operations Specialist, Office of the Director
USAID, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance

                                                                Andrew Kent in Sri Lanka

Until recently, Andrew Kent worked in the Office of the Director at USAID/OFDA in Washington, D.C. There, he focused on humanitarian policy and outreach as well as managing awards for humanitarian studies and global initiatives. This year, he will be moving to Haiti to coninue working with USAID/OFDA.  Andrew will be monitoring programs related to the January, 2010 earthquake, the cholera response in late 2010, and promoting preparedness programs. Prior to his work with USAID/OFDA, Andrew worked with International Medical Corps as a Program Manager in Kenya (Emergency Response Team) and Sri Lanka and a Program Officer in Liberia and Darfur. In each country, he focused on medical assistance, public health measures, and psychosocial programming.

Andrew graduated with an MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in 2006. While there, he evaluated a psychosocial program for Save the Children in Aceh, Indonesia. The qualitative study was a review of the school-based program and composed of individual interviews with teachers, parents, and students.

Prior to his studies at the Program on Forced Migration and Health, he spent three years in the U.S. Senate supporting staff in foreign policy.

Nathan Miller, MPH 2006
PhD student - Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control
Johns Hopkins University

                                                               Nathan in Huambo, Angola

Nathan has played key roles in the scale-up of improved malaria control efforts in Angola and Benin. As technical advisor for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative in Benin, Nathan worked with the Benin Ministry of Health, the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, UNICEF, and implementing partners to ensure that national policy and program implementation adhered to internationally accepted best practice.

In Angola, Nathan worked with The MENTOR Initiative, an NGO specializing in malaria control. He managed, in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), the National Essential Drugs Program (EDP), and the WHO, the country’s first large-scale implementation of ACT as the first-line treatment of malaria and RDTs for diagnosis of malaria. The program’s success led to it being used as a model for expansion to the rest of the country.

In the field of humanitarian relief, Nathan has directed (also with MENTOR) emergency disease control programs in Chad (with refugees from the Central African Republic) and in Myanmar (following cyclone Nargis) that provided essential life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of people and helped significantly reduce the toll of malaria and other infectious diseases among extremely vulnerable populations.

Currently, Nathan is pursuing his PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control and Johns Hopkins University.

Carinne Meyer, MPH, MIA 2008

DrPH Student

School of Public Health, UC Berkeley

Carinne is living in the Bay Area and working on a doctorate in public health at UC Berkeley.  She is conducting an evaluation of a Marie Stopes maternal health voucher program in Uganda as part of her dissertation.  She is the teaching assistant for the International Maternal and Child Health Seminar at Berkeley. Prior to her return to school, she spent two years as a research analyst at the Safe Motherhood Program at UC San Francisco.

Carinne did a joint degree with the Mailman School of Public Health and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).  At the Program of Forced Migration and Health, Carinne worked as a Graduate Research Assistant on the child protection and livelihoods project. Post-graduation, she supported the Care and Protection of Children Project in Northern Uganda.  She has conducted field research in maternal and child health in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Haiti, Somalia, and India.

            
                    Carinne weighing a baby in Ghana

Joanna Olsen, MPH, MIA 2008

Head of Office for Catholic Relief Services -

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Joanna Olsen is the Head of Office for Catholic Relief Services in Bukavu, DRC. She is reponsible for the management and oversight of all programming for CRS in South Kivu Province. The office's current portfolio includes programming in agriculture, health, protection and emergency response with a diverse funding approach, current donors include: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundaion, WHO - TB Reach, Trust Fund for Vicitims - International Criminal Court, and Pooled Funds.

Prior to accepting the position of Head of Office Joanna was the Deputy Head of Programming and oversaw monitoring and evaluation activities for health, agriculture, education, emergency and WASH programs based out of Goma and Bukavu, DRC. Her work included the design of M&E systems, evaluation of projects, design of M&E tools and on-site monitoring for program quality. In addition, Joanna worked to improve program quality by building capacity with CRS staff and implimenting partners through formal training and informal methods. 

Joanna also worked with CRS in Niger as an International Development Fellow where she managed the regional small grants program, assisted in the monitoring and evaluation of activities and project development.

Joanna graduated from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the School of International and Public Affairs in 2008. At Columbia Joanna focused on public health and management in complex emergencies and in post conflict societies.  While working on her Master’s capstone paper she worked in Sierra Leone with Christian Children's Fund and the Care and Protection of Children Intiative on an evaluation of a program for girls formerly associated with armed groups and fighting forces which utilized a new pilot methodology. Joanna also worked with the International Rescue Committee’s Health Team in New York and with the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University.

Prior to graduate school Joanna served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana where she worked on HIV/AIDS programming and in Kazakhstan teaching English.

Saundra Ball, MIA, MPH, 2009

Monitoring & Evaluation Manager

International Rescue Committee, Eastern Chad

Saundra Ball (left) and IRC Collegaue in Eastern Chad

Saundra is working with the International Rescue Committee in eastern Chad as the Monitoring & Evaluation Manager for the health programs operating in two refugee camps. Her work involves designing monitoring and evaluation tools tailored to program needs, supervising the data collection process, providing analysis and feedback, and building national staff capacity on M&E systems.

While at Columbia, Saundra earned a Master of International Affairs focusing on human rights and a Master of Public Health through the Forced Migration program. During her studies, she researched Protection of Civilians for CARE International’s advocacy branch. Her field research was done in West Darfur, Sudan with Save the Children US. She worked with the nutrition program operating in two localities to conduct qualitative research into fundamental causes of malnutrition and assisted in an anthropometric survey.

Prior to graduate school, Saundra served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Turkmenistan from 2003-2005.

Juliana Bol, MPH, 2009
Quality Assurance Specialist
Management Sciences for Health, Center for Health Services
Sudan Health Transformation Project II (SHTP II)

                                 Juliana (right) in South Sudan

Juliana is responsible for leading the quality assurance processes for Sudan Health Transformation Project Phase II. Her prime responsibility will be in rolling out the Fully Functional Service Delivery Point (FFSDP) toolkit in the government owned health facilities under the supervision of MSH’s Sub-Contracting Partners (SCPs) in 14 counties, and the county health departments. The FFSDP toolkit assesses quality of service delivery in 7 high impact areas; Maternal health; Child health; Family planning; Water, sanitation and hygiene; HIV/AIDS; Nutrition, and Malaria management. The FFSDP approach is a standards-based evaluation to assess the current situation at each health facility, with development of work-plans to enable health providers to make the necessary changes required to attain each standard of quality.

Prior to MSH, Juliana Bol worked as M&E Technical Advisor, Global Fund Round 7 Program Management Unit, and M&E Manager for PSI program departments. Prime responsibilities included analyzing programmatic data, routine data-quality assessments of Sub-Recipients, assessing progress against indicators and targets for the Malaria, Safe Water & Sanitation, HIV, and Sales departments.

At Columbia, Juliana worked as Graduate Research Assistant for Reproductive Health Access Information and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) initiative of the Mailman School of Public Health. Prior to graduate school, she spent two years as a Research Associate at Novozymes NA Inc, a biotechnology firm, doing fuel ethanol application, research and development.

Bree Akesson, MSSW, MPH 2006

PhD student

School of Social Work, McGill University

Bree Akesson is currently a PhD student at McGill University’s School of Social Work, where her research focuses on the effects of armed conflict on young children and their families. She is a licensed social worker (LMSW), providing clinical support to children and families affected by trauma for the Child Psychiatric Epidemiology Group at the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Bree also consults as a research associate for the Columbia Group for Children in Adversity, offering technical assistance to governments, operational agencies, and policymakers. She formerly worked as program manager for the Care and Protection of Children in Crisis-Affected Settings research initiative, working to strengthen the evidence base of international child protection programs in Ethiopia, Liberia, Indonesia, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Bree has consulted for the International Rescue Committee, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, UNICEF, and Save the Children.

Bree has more than ten years of experience working with children, families, and communities affected by poverty, war, and disaster. Her recent projects have included an evaluation of psychosocial program activities for children in Chechnya, a review of international safe space programs for young children in emergencies, and a longitudinal study examining the effects of parental incarceration on children and youth.

Bree studied at Columbia University in New York City, where she earned a BA in Sociology from Columbia College, an MPH in Forced Migration and Health from the Mailman School of Public Health, and a MSSW in Health, Mental Health, and Disabilities from Columbia University’s School of Social Work.

Bree (center) with childrenat Balata refugee camp in Nablus, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt)