Experience

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  Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, JHSPH

  • Baltimore, Maryland Area

  • Senior Technical Advisor

    • Apr 2018 - Present
    • Baltimore, Maryland Area

    Accountable for strategic, technical, and programmatic leadership for supporting program development, implementation and monitoring of Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) in partner countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'ivoire, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda) for The Challenge Initiative (TCI). TCI is a multifaceted program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for the rapid expansion of coverage of contraception, with a focus on the urban poor. • Provide leadership in the dissemination and use of evidence-based tools and high impact best practices to the Hubs and partner local governments through the mechanism of the TCI University (i.e., university without walls). • Ensure technical and program knowledge is updated, generated, collected and disseminated for effective technical support, capacity building in the regions and national level and high level policy dialogue.• Contribute to, and facilitate cross-country and cross-project learning; technical documentation of learning from projects.• Provide inputs and efforts to mobilize additional resources in the regions.

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  World Health Organization

  • Geneva, Switzerland

  • Technical Officer

    • Jan 1997 - May 2014
    • Geneva, Switzerland

    I served for two decades as a Scientist, Technical Officer and subsequently International Consultant in the WHO Adolescent and Youth Health and Development Program in the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health. My work included supporting national governments, local UN offices, NGO partners and Adolescents and Youth, in implementing strategic approaches to programming. • Led the process for the identification of Global Health Indicators for Adolescents and their inclusion in the design and completion of electronic country profiles. • Undertook national capacity building and technical support for Program design, tool development and adaptation, training of resource persons and support for AYSRH Program implementation, monitoring and evaluation, of contextual factors, program delivery, intermediate outcomes and behavioural outcomes. • Developed the technical basis for, and the application of, the Measurement of Quality against National Standards and Coverage of AYSRH interventions.

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  UNICEF

  • New York, USA

  • Senior Evaluation Officer

    • Sep 1991 - Dec 1996
    • New York, USA

    Accountable for monitoring the effectiveness of UNICEF's support for National Programs for children, adolescents and Mothers. • Supported the secretariat in managing the first external Multi-donor Evaluation of UNICEF’s MCH program including review of strategic frameworks, identification and review of relevant organisational and country level documents including, strategies, country master plans of operation and research and evaluation reports. • Managed thematic reviews and the development of their reports on topics including the effectiveness of Child Survival interventions with particular emphasis on the rights-based approaches to improving access to maternal health interventions; Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances (CEDC), including those in situations of extreme poverty, exploitative labour and armed conflict. • Led the UNICEF and Population Council review of Gender relations and the Role of Males and boys in program experiences from countries to inform UNICEF’s approach to gender specific programming. • Supported capacity building for program monitoring in regional and country offices, of the Middle East and South Asian countries on, Situation Analyses, Mid-Term Reviews, and performance assessments towards achievements of the World Summit for Children Goals (WSC) for the year 2000, which were the “precursors” to the Millennium Development Goals.

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  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Atlanta and New Jersey

  • Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer

    • Jul 1989 - Jul 1991
    • Atlanta and New Jersey

    Epidemiology and disease control: Accountable for outbreak investigations, compilation of epidemiology profiles and surveillance evaluation for adolescent health as an EIS officer, selected for the 2-year program by CDC and based with the New Jersey State Department of Health. • Developed the tools and implemented surveys of school policy effectiveness and smoking prevalence among adolescents in comparison school districts in New Jersey. • Liaised with the Divisions of International Health and Reproductive Health in CDC Atlanta to link surveillance of Maternal Health conditions with infant health outcomes.

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  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  • New Delhi, India

  • Child Survival Fellow

    • Apr 1987 - Jun 1989
    • New Delhi, India

    Capacity building for MCH programs in India: Supported the Government of India and the Primary Health Care Unit, of CARE-India in implementation and monitoring of an annual $80 million USAID-funded nutrition supplementation and Child Survival Project. • Supported the design, implementation and analyses of a household survey of 7200 women to review the coverage of CARE nutritional supplements linked to antenatal care seeking and the management of diarrhoea and pneumonia in their children. • Supported the training of the State-based Coordinators as part of the CARE-India’s Institutional Development Grant from USAID, in implementing and monitoring their Health and Nutrition program.

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  University of Michigan

  • Ann Arbor, Michigan

  • Research Investigator

    • Jan 1984 - Mar 1987
    • Ann Arbor, Michigan

    Human Nutrition Program for determinants of Obesity: Conducted studies of pregnant mothers and their newborn infants to identify determinants of infant and childhood weight gain. • Reviewed and published the effects of predisposing factors to childhood weight again, (socio-economic status, family history of obesity, neonatal sensory responsiveness and familial feeding practice).