For more than 30 years, HAI has had the fortune of helping train tomorrow’s public health leaders as a center of the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health.  Each year, HAI staff provide mentorship and technical support to students from the department conducting research aimed at improving health and health systems around the globe.

In 2018, HAI staff provided support to 12 MPH students conducting research for their theses.  This year’s studies included the first known assessment of adolescent health services in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as several studies exploring perceptions of mental illness and access to mental health services from Mozambique and Pakistan to the Somali diaspora community in Seattle.

Below is a full list of 2018 MPH theses and their student authors supported by HAI staff:

• Adolescent access to and utilization of health services in the Gbêkê and Hambol regions of Côte d’Ivoire: A qualitative study, Chantal Donahue

• Core Competencies for Global Health Professionals Working in Areas of Armed Conflict, Clairalyn Baucom

• “My heart die in me”: idioms of distress and the development of a screening tool for mental suffering in southeast Liberia, Katrin Fabian

• Motivation to Participate in Health Advocacy and Health Services: An evaluation of Advocacy for Better Health in Uganda, Nikki Gurley

• Suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and mental health care-seeking in Central Mozambique, Sheldon Halsted

• Ambitious HIV Treatment Goals, Viral Suppression, and Laboratory Readiness in Maputo, Mozambique, Celso Inguane

• Perceptions of Mental Health in the Somali Community in King County, WA: a Community- Based Participatory Research Study, Hana Mohamed

• Determining Sustainability Factors in PEPFAR-Sponsored Programs and Products Transitioned to Local Ownership, Manuel Ocampo

• A New Hope: Perspectives on Implementing the Pilot of a New Comprehensive Health Care Model in Guainía, Colombia, Hugo Puerto

• The Dividual Self: Ethno-psychology, Idioms of Distress and Explanatory Models of Mental Illness in Karachi, Pakistan, Taha Sabri

• Contributing Factors to Continuous Quality Improvement Success in PMTCT in Sub-Saharan Africa, Christopher Wong

• Geographic distribution and determinants of mental health stigma in central Mozambique, Yue Zhang

On Thursday, June 7th, these 12 students joined the rest of their cohort in graduation ceremonies at the University of Washington.

Congratulations on a degree well-earned and a future of improving health and health systems around the world.