Program on Forced Migration and Health

Alumni

Program graduates work around the world with international NGOs, United Nations agencies, community based organizations, governments, foundations and universities. Upon graduating, students often work in the field. As they continue on in their careers, graduates often become technical experts at the headquarters, regional or national level.

Spotlight on our Graduates

Carinne Meyer, MPH, MIA 2008

Project Analyst, Safe Motherhood Program, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, UC San Francisco

Reproductive Health Consultant, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Population Program

Areas of Research:

Maternal Health in Low-Resource Settings
Strategies to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity from Postpartum Hemorrhage
Access to Reproductive Health

Programs and Leadership: Carinne serves as the Project Analyst for the Safe Motherhood Program at UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health where she is responsible for analyzing data, writing, editing and presenting on the results of a cluster randomized control trial in Zambia and Zimbabwe which is testing the efficacy of the Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment, of LifeWrap, which is used to treat shock, resuscitate, stabilize, and prevent further bleeding in women with obstetric hemorrhage (www.lifewraps.org). In addition, she conducts research in the area of reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa for the Hewlett Foundation’s Population Program. Carinne will be starting a doctorate in Public Health at UC Berkeley - a three-year interdisciplinary degree. She plans to focus her academic research on the cost effectiveness of maternal health interventions.

Carinne did a joint degree with Mailman and SIPA earning a Masters in International Political and Economic Development in addition to a Masters in Public Health during her time at Columbia University. At the Program of Forced Migration and Health, Carinne worked as a Graduate Research Assistant on child protection and livelihoods projects. Post-graduation, she supported the Care and Protection of Children Project in Northern Uganda. She has conducting field research on maternal and child health in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Haiti, Somalia, and India.

Carinne weighing a baby in Ghana

Joanna Olsen, MPH, MIA 2008

International Development Fellow

Catholic Relief Services - Nigerw with CRS-Niger.

Joanna Olsen is an International Development Fellow with CRS-Niger. She manages their regional small grants program, assists in the monitoring and evaluation of activities and project development. She has most recently worked on the CRS response to flooding in the Agadez Region of Niger.

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.

Juliana Bol, MPH, 2009

Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Advisor,
Population Services International, Sudan

Juliana in Juba, South Sudan

Juliana Bol is the Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Advisor for PSI Sudan's programs, which include HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Malaria and Sales. Her responsibilities include designing program-specific monitoring and evaluation tools and data flow procedures; monitoring data collection, entry, and analysis; working with sub recipients and partners to build capacity on data collection and reporting; recruitment, training and supervision of monitoring and evaluation officers and writing internal and external reports.

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

PSI Sudan is a non-profit social marketing organization, operating in seven states across Southern Sudan. PSI Sudan creates demand for essential health products (e.g. WaterGuard and Pur for safe drinking water, Number 1 condoms, and long lasting insecticide treated bednets) and services by using private sector marketing techniques and innovative communications campaigns. PSI Sudan works with the commercial sector to increase the availability of these products and services at prices that are affordable to low-income populations. http://www.psi.org/where_we_work/sudan.html

Bree Akesson, MSSW, MPH 2006

Ph.D. student

School of Social Work, McGill University

Bree Akesson is currently a Ph.D. student at McGill University’s School of Social Work in Montréal. Bree currently works as clinical treatment facilitator for the Child Psychiatric Epidemiology Group at the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene. She has formerly served as program manager for the Care and Protection of Children in Crisis-Affected Settings (CPC) Initiative at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and as interim program director of Outside the Dream Foundation. She has also consulted for the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development’s Early Childhood in Emergencies Working Group, and USAID’s Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival. From 2001 to 2002, she lived and worked in Kenya as a public health volunteer for the United States Peace Corps. Ms. Akesson has a Master's of Public Health in Forced Migration and Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a Master's of Science in Health, Mental Health, and Disabilities from Columbia University’s School of Social Work. Her current research focuses on the early childhood care and development of young child caregivers in emergency settings. She currently lives in Montréal.

Bree (second from left) with a psychosocial program at a primary school in Chechnya, Russian Federation

Lindsay Stark, MPH, DrPH(c)

Senior Research Associate

Care and Protection of Children in Crisis-Affected Countries

Program on Forced Migration and Health Columbia University

Lindsay Stark is a Senior Research Associate and the first doctoral candidate in the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University. She has consulted widely with the United Nations and NGO agencies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Lindsay's research examines child soldiering, psychosocial assistance, gender-based violence and child protection surveillance systems in emergencies. Much of her work applies epidemiological methods to human rights and child protection concerns.

Previously, Lindsay served as a researcher and project manager for Columbia's Care and Protection of Children in Crisis-Affected Countries' Initiative, taught at the University of Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, and conceived of and managed by psychosocial.org, a program devoted to aid worker well-being during her three years with Action Without Borders.

Most recently, Lindsay co-founded "The Columbia Group for Children in Adversity" along with Neil Boothby and Mike Wessells. The group provides unparalleled technical support to governments, operational agencies, and policy makers grappling with the critical task of ensuring the protection and well-being of children growing up amidst adversity. Lindsay is a published author and photographer.

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