McGoldrick / ARISE Program: 2018 Update

One year ago, during December 2017, seven McGoldrick ARISE fellows from sub-Saharan Africa traveled to HSPH to attend a workshop led by Former Yerby Fellow Sarah Anoke, and Professors Marcello Pagano and Wafaie Fawzi.  This was the first round of the McGoldrick Professional Development Program in Public Health under the aegis of the Africa Research, Implementation Science, and Education (ARISE) Network.

Attendee institutions included Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Botswana, University of Rwanda, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health in Ethiopia, and University of Ibadan.  While attending the workshop, the fellows were trained in advanced research methods for assessing health outcomes and monitoring and evaluating new and existing intervention programs.

The second phase of the ARISE Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Workshop continued during Summer 2018, with Sarah Anoke traveling to each institution to help in the deployment and institutionalization of the “Quantitative methods for monitoring and evaluation” course.  She was the key facilitator in ensuring that the fellows were able to successfully adapt and implement curricula in advanced research methods at their institution.  The course was officially implemented at the University of Rwanda (June 2018), the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (July 2018), Muhimbili University for Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania (July 2018), the University of Botswana (August 2018), the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa (September 2018), and the Addis Continental Institute of Public Health in Ethiopia (November 2018). The seven fellows who took part in the training program led the implementation and teaching of the course, reaching over 200 students.  We received feedback that the students thought very highly of the courses, and the instructors and institutions plan on offering the courses again.

The next phase of the ARISE Program is now being led by Marcello Pagano, Wafaie Fawzi and Postdoctoral Fellow Elysia Larson, with support from Megan Scott.  In January, Dr. Larson and eleven educators from public health institutions, representing 10 institutions in eight countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa will convene as McGoldrick Fellows at the partner site, University of Rwanda African Center for Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS) for a two-week workshop.  The program will provide training and mentorship to junior faculty fellows on both general topics in higher education (such as syllabus development, instructional style) and specific materials for the course titled “Data management with software application.”  The focus of this course is on producing high-quality, reproducible, and useable datasets. Topics include survey measurement and design, principles of data collection, quality assurance, and data sharing and reporting.  The program will also facilitate the networking of instructors from all over sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The McGoldrick Professional Development Program in Public Health is made possible by a generous gift from Mr. John McGoldrick, a department benefactor.