Jennifer Schlecht Memorial Scholarship Fund

The Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health is pleased to announce the recipients of the third round of Jennifer Schlecht Practicum Scholarship for Sexual and Reproductive Health Justice in Fragile Settings as we remember her birthday this month. This cash award was created to honor Jennifer’s life and legacy, with the goal of creating a group of highly trained, passionate public health leaders who are committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The Schlecht Scholarship provides funding to select PopFam MPH students pursuing SRH Applied Practice Experiences (APEx) in fragile and low-resource settings.

Current Students: The next round of applications will open in Spring 2025.

If you would like to donate to the scholarship fund, please click below.

2024 Recipients

Roanne Elnogoumi worked at the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) headquarters, an NGO with a strong presence across 15 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region. She worked with the Polio and Immunization team on The Way Forward for Pertussis Control in the Middle East and North Africa, a project focused on increasing Tdap vaccine uptake during the third phase of pregnancy to ensure safe pregnancies and reduce the burden of pertussis among infants. Roanne assisted with both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, examining the current responses and measures taken by 13 countries across the Eastern Mediterranean Region. She co-facilitated discussions about the effectiveness of current measures, barriers to vaccine uptake among mothers, and explored alternative preventive methods for different populations during workshops.

Additionally, she helped develop a community engagement toolkit that could be used across all EMPHNET departments. Roanne compiled a comprehensive review that synthesized discussion points, recommendations, and action items for reducing pertussis on a regional level. 

In addition, Roanne worked with the Research and Policy team on the Family Planning and Mental Health project which focused on documenting key risk factors for women who develop postpartum depression and creating appropriate interventions. She conducted a meta-analysis to assess the prevalence and risk factors of postpartum depression among women in the region. 

Roanne’s favorite part of her internship was the opportunity to work in a community-driven environment where everyone's perspectives were respected and considered.  

Sarah Branoff worked with Women and Rural Development Networks (WORUDET) and the International Rescue Committee to support the She Cares project, an initiative aimed at increasing access to self-managed contraception for refugees living in northern Uganda. Working in Palabek refugee settlement, Sarah conducted in-depth interviews with She Cares participants (including family planning clients, midwives, village health teams, and drug shop owners) to help document the rollout of the program and understand women’s experiences navigating self-care for sexual and reproductive health. She also supported program activities such as trainings for health providers aimed at increasing their capacity to counsel clients in self-injecting DMPA-SC (Sayana Press) and community engagement with “Youth Champions” and religious and cultural leaders to increase advocacy for SRH self-care in Uganda’s humanitarian settings. Some of the stories that Sarah collected can be found here

Andrea Dongmo-Zebaze collaborated with the RAISE Initiative, International Rescue Committee (IRC) Chad, and the University of N'Djamena on a mixed-methods study focused on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Guéra, Chad. The study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators affecting adolescents aged 12–19 in accessing and utilizing SRH services in IRC-supported districts within the region. Leveraging her native fluency in French, Andrea effectively connected with colleagues and local communities to contribute to several key activities.

These included facilitating trainings for qualitative research facilitators and survey interviewers, supporting participatory sessions with adolescent girls, and survey data collection. She also supported coding and analyzing qualitative data transcripts. The findings are now being used to develop actionable recommendations and briefing materials for the IRC to enhance SRH service delivery for adolescents under the ProGeSan project.

The highlight of Andrea’s APEx was travelling with survey teams to different villages, where she gained a deeper understanding of the realities of fieldwork and household survey data collection. She also enjoyed working closely with adolescent girls through participatory activities, learning from them directly about their experiences. These valuable opportunities inspire Andrea to pursue further roles implementing community-centered SRH programming in Central Africa. 


Past Recipients 

2023
Natalie Andrasko beside a sign for her field practice site, Women and Rural Development Network in Uganda

Natalie Andrasko worked with the Women and Rural Development Network (WORUDET), a community-based women’s rights organization, in Northern Uganda. Natalie worked on the "SHE CARES" project to test the feasibility of introducing self-care sexual and reproductive health products, such as self-injectable contraceptives, to adolescent girls and young women living in Palabek refugee settlement and the host community. Natalie assisted with human-centered design qualitative research with adolescent girls, drug shop owners, and health workers to understand their feelings and acceptance of self-care sexual and reproductive health. She also conducted and analyzed baseline surveys to determine drug shops’ and health facilities’ readiness to introduce self-care products. Natalie's favorite parts of her APEx were learning more about the humanitarian ecosystem in Ugandan settlements, applying her Mailman coursework to the project, and exploring on the weekends with her wonderful coworkers. Read more about her experience.(link is external and opens in a new window)

Katherine Kennedy at her field practice site, Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) in Uganda

Katherine Kennedy worked with the Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) in Uganda, a collaboration among Makerere, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins Universities. Katherine performed quantitative data analysis for a project focused on the timing of puberty and its relation to school enrollment and social transitions among adolescents. She will continue to work with RHSP this academic year on a research grant related to orphanhood and HIV in the Rakai community.  Read more about her experience(link is external and opens in a new window).

Esther Parker at her field practice site, the African Population Health and Research Center (APHRC) in Kenya

Esther Parker worked with the African Population Health and Research Center (APHRC), an African-led research and policy institute, in Nairobi, Kenya. She supported a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized counseling provided by community health volunteers (CHVs) in enhancing contraceptive uptake and continuation among adolescent mothers. Her primary activities involved planning and executing the endline survey, which entailed developing the endline survey questionnaire, creating the training manual for the endline data collectors, facilitating a week-long training for the data collectors, and conducting comprehensive literature reviews. Additionally, she participated in site visits to assess the progress of the intervention activities (individual counseling through CHVs) and supervised selected interviews.  Read more about her experience.(link is external and opens in a new window)

2022

The Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health awarded the first scholarships in May 2022 to two students who went to Chad with International Rescue Committee (IRC) and PopFam's RAISE Initiative: Aminata Diarra and Theodora Varelis. 

Theodora Varelis and Aminata Diarra

Aminata and Theodora worked with International Rescue Committee-Chad's Protection, Gender and Health (ProGeSan) program in partnership with RAISE and Université de N’Djamena. Theodora and Aminata supported two research studies in 2 refugee camps in Wadi-Fira, Chad: one focused on person-centered maternity care and the other on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Here they are digitizing information gathered on a flip chart created by adolescents during a series of participatory research activities on sexual and reproductive health at Kounoungou refugee camp. Read more about their experience(link is external and opens in a new window).