Dr. Jessica Lee Cohen is Assistant Professor of Global Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Center for International Development and Malaria Technical Adviser with the Clinton Health Access Initiative. She is also the co-founder of TAMTAM Africa, Inc. (Together Against Malaria), an NGO operating in East Africa since 2003 working on malaria prevention among pregnant women. Her current research applies the methods of program design, randomized trials, and impact evaluation to maternal and child health programs and policies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Cohen is co-editor (with William Easterly) of the book “What Works in Development?: Thinking Big and Thinking Small.” She also has forthcoming research on sustainable financing for public health programs and financing vehicles to reduce aid volatility.
She is currently working on a number of field trials in Africa related to appropriate treatment for malaria, technology adoption, messaging and behavior change and pharmaceutical supply chains.
- Whether subsidies for over-the-counter malaria tests in African pharmacies can be used to encourage adoption of the tests and reduce over-treatment with malaria medicine (Kenya)
- The impact of specialized packaging and targeted messaging of antimalarials on treatment compliance (Uganda)
- The role of beliefs about malaria prevalence and of targeted messaging/behavior change campaigns on consumer demand for malaria testing and supplier pricing of malaria tests (Uganda)
- Incentives to pharmaceutical wholesalers to achieve high coverage in remote areas of Tanzania.
Dr. Cohen’s work has been referenced in major national and international publications, including the The Economist, the Boston Globe, New York Times and Nature. She has advised the government of Zanzibar on its malaria control program and the Canadian International Development Agency on its child survival programs.
Dr. Cohen received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Wesleyan University and was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at MIT, where she received her doctorate in economics.
