Anne Griggs, '01 MSPH alumna, recently moved oversees to work for the Malaria Consortium. Find out what she has to say about the organization, her new job, and the connection they have to her public health education.
Q: How did you learn about the opportunity with the Malaria Consortium?
AG: A former professor and mentor, Patricia Graves, had worked with Malaria Consortium (MC) before, knew they were expanding, and suggested I take a look at the website. http://www.malariaconsortium.org/
Q: What is the Malaria Consortium?
AG: The Malaria Consortium is an organization that works to improve the prevention and delivery of diagnostics and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases in Africa and Asia. It works with communities, health systems, governments and non-government agencies, academic institutions, and local and international organization to ensure good evidence supports the delivery of effective services.
Q: Why did you decided to accept this opportunity?
AG: At the time I made the decision, I was in the extremely fortunate, but also difficult, situation to choose among three offers. I accepted the MC offer because it most closely and consistently matched my professional and personal goals. Plus, this offer was unique in that it allowed me the chance to break into the malaria field in Africa (Mozambique), without prior experience unlike so many other job descriptions.
Q: What activities will you be involved in?
AG: A good part of my position initially will be to help coordinate a few field surveys throughout the country. One is of a net tracking system of long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN) given to pregnant women during antenatal visits; another is a retail survey of the kinds of nets sold by different sellers, to evaluate how market demand can increase in different communities. Other projects involve overlapping areas of malaria research such as the integrated management of childhood illnesses, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and neglected tropical diseases.
Q: What do you hope to learn, accomplish or gain from this opportunity?
AG: There are a few things I anticipate learning, but I’m sure there will be just as many unanticipated things that will be as valuable. This is a great opportunity to combine and expand on so many skills, applied field (and desk) epidemiology, communications training, monitoring and evaluation, logistics, database management, statistics, grant writing, manuscript preparation, GIS and spatial theory, survey design, cultural, geographic, language and SCUBA immersion, to name a few.
Q: What connection do you expect you’ll find between your work and your MSPH education?
AG: Having met and worked with other MPH’s from around the US and world, it didn’t take long to appreciate the value of the strong epidemiology and statistical methodology taught at [UC D]. For example, the following have come in quite handy:
Want more information about public health alumni like Anne? Well, we do too. If you have updates, news about a former classmate, or are looking to reconnect, please let us know, e-mail Colorado.SPH@ucdenver.edu.