Scientific Advisory Board

Tom Achoki is Director of African Initiatives and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Dr. Achoki has over ten years’ progressive experience in population health research and program management at country, regional, and global levels. His areas of interest include monitoring and evaluation; program implementation and research; and health systems strengthening.

Ranju Baral is an Economist at the University of California, San Francisco Global Health Group’s Malaria Elimination Initiative. Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. Her current research focuses on developing methods to better understand the effectiveness of health systems in delivering health services. She is interested in health economics and especially in the evaluation of public health programs. She previously worked as a Public Health Officer for a government agency and non-governmental organization in Nepal. She holds a Master’s in Public Health from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and also a PhD in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.

Barrot Lambdin is a Senior Implementation Specialist at RTI International‘s Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice research division. Dr. Lambdin is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco and an Affiliate Assistant Professor within the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Over the last decade, Dr. Lambdin has led implementation science initiatives that have supported and strengthened health systems to more efficiently deliver programs in resource-limited settings. 

Brienna Naughton is a native of Boston, MA (USA), and is moving to Seattle from Kigali, Rwanda where she worked for three years with Partners In Health (PIH). In Rwanda, she managed a multidimensional, district-level health systems strengthening intervention, supported numerous research activities, and was closely involved in strategizing for and then launching PIH’s innovative initiative, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE). UGHE is focused on training future health leaders through a novel emphasis on the science of healthcare delivery. Prior to her work with PIH, she worked in clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital after completing her MPH in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases and Global Health at the Yale School of Public Health. At Yale, she led the design, implementation, and analysis of a study of healthcare workers who treated HIV-positive patients in South Africa. Brienna plans to utilize her implementation science PhD to build on her work with UGHE and to study scientific methods for translating evidence to effective interventions in resource-limited settings. She hopes to work with national health sectors and local governments in designing, evaluating, and scaling up interventions in order to improve health and health equity. 

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.

Brad Wagenaar’s research, implementation, and service work focuses on supporting equitable public-sector health systems and policies globally. Dr. Wagenaar has particular interests in improving the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders in low-and middle-income countries. He has previously worked in Cameroon, Haiti, and Malawi. In his current role working with Health Alliance International, a Center of the Department of Global Health, he provides technical support to a number of health systems, operations research, and implementation science projects in Mozambique, primarily focused on improving government primary healthcare and the quality and use of health information system data for decision-making and health evaluations. He is trained as an Epidemiologist and has specific expertise in quasi-experimental designs and time-series analyses.

Archana Shresta is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Shrestha completed her PhD in Epidemiology and International Health at the University of Washington and also holds a Masters of Public Health from the Institute of Medicine, Nepal. She worked for five years with different international non-governmental organizations in the sectors of maternal and child health, tuberculosis, community based health insurance, and prevention of disability in rural Nepal. Currently, she is working on various cardiovascular disease studies investigating the association of the Nepalese diet with obesity and diabetes among suburban populations in Nepal.

Shiva Raj Adhikari holds a PhD in Economics from Chulalonglongkorn University, Thailand. Dr. Adhikari is an Associate Professor of Economics at Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He is also a member of multiple prorfessional bodies including the International Health Economics Association as well as the President of the Institute for Nepal Environment and Health System Development. He has been involved in a number of high-profile research projects examining issues relating to health policy and health care financing. The themes covered include the evaluation of equitable access to medicine, poverty and tropical diseases, the impact of urban planning on health, as well as health care financing in Nepal. His work has been published in a number of national and international journals specializing in health and development issues such as the Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, the Lancet, Health Policy and Planning, and the Economic Journal of Development Issues.

Peter Rohloff trained in medicine and parasitology at the University of Illinois (PhD 2003, MD 2007). Subsequently, Dr. Roholoff conducted residency training in internal medicine (Brigham and Women’s Hospital) and pediatrics (Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center). He is a cofounder of Wuqu’ Kawoq-Maya Health Alliance, a primary care system dedicated to excellence in primary care for the indigenous Maya population of Guatemala, and he has served as Medical Director since 2009. His areas of expertise include the use of indigenous languages to deliver health care, child stunting, and the social epidemiology of non-communicable diseases. He directs a large team of researchers and clinicians conducting applied, mixed-methods health outcomes research in rural Guatemala.

Judd Walson has extensive experience in the design and implementation of large clinical trials in resource-limited settings. He has worked extensively in Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Nepal. Dr. Walson is particularly interested in the effect of enteric infection and composition on immunologic function and growth. Currently, Dr. Walson is developing a clinical trial platform to test interventions to reduce or prevent childhood stunting and has several ongoing studies evaluating the effects of endemic infections (enteric pathogens, tuberculosis, and malaria). In addition to his clinical research, Dr. Walson is the Co-Director of the Global Health and Strategic Analysis and Research Training Program (START), an innovative collaboration between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the University of Washington Department of Global Health.