“I know how to make [collaboration] happen because of the Evans School MPA program,”
Brian Chung (MPA ’07)
“Making change is a process,” Brian said. “At an institutional level, we need to have people willing to do the work. The Evans School MPA prepared me to do the work that facilitates change for the public good.”
Jen Muzia (MPA ’04)
“I see an MPA degree as a tool that provides the foundational skills to operate in the world of social capital”
Rachel Fyall Published in Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Title: Pantries and Policy Implementation: Using Nonprofit Priorities to Understand Variation in Emergency Food Assistance
Authors: Rachel Fyall and Jamie Levine Daniel
Journal: Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Abiola Awarded Integrity Award of the Year from Nigeria’s Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Studies
Abiola was awarded the Integrity Award of the Year from Nigeria’s Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Studies for her work with Saving One Million Lives. Here is her account:
“The day to day implementation of the Saving One Million Lives initiative entails that my team constantly engage with the community – PHC workers; community leaders (religious and traditional); women and youths. I head the team in Ondo State Nigeria and I always saw to it that our dealings were totally transparent and in accordance with professional and program standards. Driving this requires some boldness and resilience. Even when pushed to do otherwise, we went ahead to only do the right thing.
I was in my office at the Ministry of Health’s Secretariat when some reps from the Centre for Anti-corruption Research and Studies Nigeria came in. The organization is independently involved with communities, schools and higher institutions on championing the course of anti-corruption as their name implies. They had garnered information about us and announced that the community unanimously nominated me for the Integrity Award recipient of the Year. According to the lead, as part of their “Catch them Young” strategy to fight corruption in Nigeria, the organization recognizes efforts that should be showcased to youths in schools to emulate as they progress through their formative years.
On November 16, 2017, I was presented with the Award of Integrity of the Year. I am so humbled with this honor …….what more can I say…..integrity pays….you must earn the pay but should not spend it.
This award is dedicated to the commitment of my entire team.”
A special thank you to Abiola for sharing her story.
View the photo album here
Liz Returns to Seattle!
Liz returned to Seattle in September for IHME’s Global Burden of Disease 20th Anniversary Symposium. She was accompanied by her co-worker and her immediate boss, who was approached to be a discussant at the conference. “For the week we were in Seattle, we joked that our office has officially relocated to Seattle!”
The three-day GBD celebration included one full day of training in which participants could choose four priority streams to be taken through GBD 2016 findings, methodologies, and advances. Liz was most interested in translating the quantitative results of the GBD to stakeholders.
“My greatest interest was on how GBD results can be efficiently communicated to various people from citizens and policymakers to the most technical people concerned with health data. Such complex methodologies and terminologies from the GBD study would not be well understood by many policy makers and the citizens without adequate communication skills. In addition, I was very interested in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) findings of GBD given that Kenya has committed to the Voluntary National Review of SDGs where the country conducts regular and inclusive reviews of progress at the national and sub-national levels, with an aim of sharing experiences and lessons learned.”
Liz noted that the session on the epidemiologic transition of diseases was also of particular relevance, as Kenya is currently experiencing a “triple burden of disease,” with non-communicable diseases contributing to high levels of disability and death.
After a day of training, the symposium followed with a line-up of influential speakers including Bill Gates (introduced by UW President Ana Mari Cauce) and Dr. Jim Yong Kim. In his keynote address, Bill Gates discussed the role the GBD has played in driving global health priorities and how the first GBD study, published in 1993, by Dr. Christopher Murray and Dr. Alan Lopez, catalyzed the global health work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For Liz, the speech was impactful: “It was great to hear how the idea of GBD was born, and as to how it seemed a daunting or better still, an impossible task, yet has grown to be a world-renowned source of health data. I am glad that Mr. Gates saw the bigger picture and found it worth supporting this initiative.”
Special thanks to Liz Wangia for her contribution to this piece.