Navigating the Path to Impact: My Summer as a Research Lead for Qualitative Analysis with FHI 360’s TQLA Team

Posted on by cmckay1

Embarking on a journey as a research fellow with FHI 360’s Total Quality Leadership and Accountability (TQLA) team has been full of learning. As the research lead for the qualitative analysis of TQLA’s impact over the years, I have uncovered not only the transformative power of their work but also the wide array of skills I continue to gather for my future endeavors.

Before delving into the invaluable skills I have gained, let me provide some context. FHI 360’s TQLA framework is a transformative and innovative managerial strategy in global health, championing quality improvement and accountability in HIV programs in several countries globally. My task over the year is to supplement TQLA’s quantitative evaluation by assessing the qualitative impact of TQLA’s work, a responsibility that comes with great anticipation and many opportunities to learn as an early career professional in global public health work.

First, I have had the opportunity to sharpen my data analysis skills. This includes developing a comprehensive interview guide for staff at all levels of the TQLA team. This process involved several iterations and that for me foreshadowed the needed patience in developing valuable and sustainable tools for assessing public health impact. Additionally, I quickly learned the importance of effective communication. I needed to collaborate with colleagues in Nigeria to ensure the analysis aligned with TQLA’s goals. The ability to convey the goals and objectives of our mixed-methods approach in a clear and concise manner is a skill that will undoubtedly serve me well in future projects. Being a point person for such a substantial project continues to teach me the art and science of project management. I continue to hone my ability to organize and execute projects efficiently.

FHI 360 prioritizes the professional growth and development of its employees. Through training programs, mentorship opportunities, and access to a wealth of resources, I have been able to further enhance my skills and knowledge, which will undoubtedly benefit my future career in public health. This summer, I had the opportunity to chat with FHI’s Chief Operating Officer, who shared career insights and encouraged me to build relationships over the year. Additionally, FHI organized a workshop for all interns and fellows that discussed what development work looks like and the skills in high demand. To put this into practice while I am on the team and to leverage my skills for my project, I am currently enrolled in a Project Management course sponsored by FHI.

My practicum was just the beginning of what I believe will be a year full of worthwhile challenges as I continue to build relevant skills. Onwards and Upwards!

Acknowledgements: Thank you to my team in Nigeria, especially Dr. Charles Odima for your support on this project.

-Sena Kpodzro

Occupational and Environmental Preventative Public Health Workshop in Conde, Bahia Brazil

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My name is Jaquayla Hodges, and I am an approaching second-year MPH student at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in the Applied Epidemiology concentration. Within my public health career, my main foci are health inequities that exist across the African Diaspora, Latinx, and rural communities.

My last update of my practicum in Salvador, Bahia Brazil centered the work completed by myself and the Entre Mares Research Group while stationed in the city. The second half of my practicum moved the team to a town three hours north of Salvador, Sítio do Conde.

Fishing boats in the mangrove near Conde
Fishing boats cruising through the mangroves along Conde and neighboring towns.

This trip was not originally planned for my participation during the practicum, but my practicum preceptor saw this as a great experience for me to connect my data analysis to reality. Afterall, the principal of epidemiology is the use of participant data from real people to improve health conditions and outcomes. My work involved data analysis of responses collected from a questionnaire distributed by the research team of fellow UNC and Universidade Federal da Bahia professors and students. I analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data including variables such as household income for each municipal city in Southern Bahia with the use of R Studio and Excel. Most of this work was remote, so it was nice to meet the people in my dataset. Members of the team from other parts of Brazil, including Pernambuco and indigenous towns, came along for this workshop as well.

Members of the research group and Condo residents smile and pose on the beach
Members of the Entre Mares Research Group and a few Conde residents following the first day of the workshop.

The motive of this workshop was to relay the health impact of the 2019 oil spill, connect the residents to the team’s progress, and assess the knowledge of preventative methods and behaviors for future environmental crises. We used data analyzed from the team to provide fishing communities knowledge and reasonable personal protective equipment (PPE) tips according to what everyone found accessible. For example, most people in the area wore shorts and flip flops daily. Something as simple as wearing long sleeved shirts and pants contributed to better protection during the cleaning processes. Alternatives to expensive store products were also discussed, acknowledging the reality of accessibility of costs for PPE. There were games like “Facto ou Mito (Fact or Myth)”, where participants would break into two teams and answer whether the statement on the screen about preventative environmental disaster behaviors were a fact or myth. None of the teams answered incorrectly! Both teams ended up winning prizes at the end of the game.

Conde residents are seated indoors playing Facto ou Mito
Residents of Conde and neighboring cities in the workshop, playing Facto ou Mito.
A handwritten flowchart depicts how the fishing colony was impacted by the oil spill disaster
A flowchart created by the participants shows how the fishing colony is affected by the disaster. This organizes the event and its real-life effect according to those impacted.

The team’s analyses, along with a few other studies on oil disasters around the world, aided in providing statistics for the workshop. Analyses are key to protecting communities from future occupational and environmental disasters through the workshops our team developed over the summer. The Entre Mares Research Group has grown to observe, engage and protect fishing communities in Salvador, and other affected communities in northeastern Brazil. I took over 300 photos and videos (see below), with community permission, for use of advocacy in future text or social media posts and the creation of a banner to be displayed in the fisher’s post in Conde. Future workshops with the team will focus on fisher’s occupational health and aims to expand to other important health outcomes for those living across northeastern Brazil.

Small, clear bottles feature the logo Jaquayla designed
Materials for participants with the logo I designed!
A close up shot of colored pencils, part of a pair of scissors, and colorful pieces of paper on a table
Free childcare was provided with games that increased their awareness of the environment and their importance as families who fish to support the economy and themselves. 
A shot from behind a boy who holds a fish net nera the shore
The son of the leader of the fishing site shows us his fish net making skills.
A man holds a fish out to the camera
A proud fisher shows me his catch of the day.

Lightning Talks about Diagnostics

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Hello everyone! My name is Sophie Nachman and I am an MPH student in the EQUITY concentration. This summer for my practicum I have been working with the Mérieux Foundation, an organization based in Lyon, France which focuses on access to diagnostics and other public health research around the globe. Each year they host the Advanced Course in Diagnostics (ACDx), a week-long event dedicated to discussing diagnostics policy, development, and implementation to address public health issues. Participants include laboratory scientists, health professionals, decision-makers, and researchers from around the world, mostly from LMICs.

One of the core goals of the course is to spur collaboration and networking. To aid in this goal, one of my projects this summer has been to organize a series of video lightning talks with the incoming cohort of participants. For this series, we asked participants to record a three-minute video presentation about a topic of their choosing related to diagnostics. Historically, participants do not meet each other before ACDx in the fall so our primary goal for this project was to start building community among the incoming cohort in the months leading up to ACDx. Our secondary goal was to identify participants to speak on panels or round-table discussions during ACDx in September. We identified three topics from the ACDx agenda to serve as guides, and invited participants to record lightning talks related to those topics if they were interested in participating in those panel discussions.

We hosted a Zoom meeting in June to introduce the lightning talks project where we discussed our goals, potential topics, and covered open access and widely available presentation tools. We then gave participants one month to record their presentation. Of the 35 participants, we received 16 lightning talks about a variety of topics, including COVID-19, malaria, polio, climate change and diagnostics, domestic manufacturing of diagnostics, and tools and policies to increase access in rural communities and conflict zones. Since receiving the videos, we have started posting the videos in a WhatsApp group for the current cohort a few times per week and invited folks to post questions and comments. We will continue to post these videos regularly for the next several weeks to build community within the incoming cohort, start conversations about innovative research in diagnostics, and get people excited about ACDx in September.

Based on the topics participants chose, we have invited people to participate in panel discussions in ACDx. We also intend to build on the video project during a session about designing videos for health communication during ACDx, and I appreciate the support from Gillings that will enable me to attend the course in September. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the ACDx team so far, and learning about the interesting work that ACDx participants are doing to improve availability and access to diagnostics all over the world.

-Sophie Nachman