Faculty

Juliana Bol, PhD, is interested in evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of health system strengthening approaches in conflict-affected and fragile settings. She is particularly keen on extending the methodological toolkit used in the health systems research space to estimate program and policy effectiveness and/or impact using observational data, and in the applications of contract theory to improve accountability and service delivery.  Her focus is on understanding humanitarian and developmental aid programs in complex settings where both are concurrent. She has experience working in monitoring and evaluation, and quality improvement of maternal and child health programs, primarily in South Sudan.  View Publications and Research 

M. Claire Greene, PhD, MPH, is a psychiatric and substance use epidemiologist. Her research focuses on improving the effectiveness and implementation of mental health and psychosocial support programs in humanitarian settings by integrating methods in epidemiology, intervention evaluation, and implementation science. She is involved in research to develop, evaluate and scale up mental health and substance use interventions in diverse settings and populations globally. In her work she collaborates with governmental and non-governmental organizations, international agencies, and academic institutions.  She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in global mental health implementation science at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, received her PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her MPH from Yale School of Public Health. She co-teaches Investigative Methods in Complex Emergencies.  View Publications and Research 

Mark Canavera, MA, MPP, was the Associate Director of the CPC Learning Network, an entity housed at the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health which convenes academics, policymakers, and practitioners to promote innovative research, nurture communities of learning, and build the next generation of researchers and advocates for children and families worldwide. In this role for over twelve years, he coordinated research and advocacy efforts on children’s protection, care, health, and development; he serves as the co-chair of the Building the Evidence Interest Group of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance and the Task Force on Systems Strengthening and Disaster Risk Reduction for the global Child Protection Working Group. Mark came to the CPC Learning Network after many years working as a humanitarian aid and development worker in West Africa. He also launched and served as the founding coordinator of the Community Child Protection Exchange, an online initiative to improve the level of knowledge and understanding around community-based child protection mechanisms and national child protection systems. He has worked in over 20 countries with a variety of agencies, including Save the Children, UNHCR, Oxfam, Terre des hommes, AVSI, and Child Frontiers. His work has spanned former child soldier reintegration in northern Uganda, small arms control in Senegal, girls’ education promotion in Burkina Faso, and child welfare system reform in Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Benin, and Cameroon. He holds Master’s degrees in Peace Studies from Notre Dame and Public Policy from Harvard.

Dr. Shannon Marquez is the Dean of Global Engagement and Director of the Columbia University Center of Undergraduate Engagement (UGE). UGE enhances access and support for global opportunities and brings students and faculty together in a central location that creates a hub of global activity, leveraging the Columbia Global Center networks in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East; and partnerships around the world. Prior to joining Columbia University, Dr. Marquez was the Vice Provost for International Development and a Professor of Global and Environmental Health, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science at Drexel University, where she also served as the Founding Director of the Drexel Global Health Initiative and the Dornsife Global Development Scholars Program which supported 3 to 6 month MPH practica, co-op/internship experience, and field-based research in 36 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia; and she developed and launched CHE-community health and environment in Cuba-a faculty-led intensive field course taught in Cuba, in partnership with the University of Cienfuegos and CIVITAS. An experienced senior international officer, global health scholar, public health engineer and environmental scientist, Dr. Marquez has garnered international recognition for her work on achieving the SDGs in low- and middle-income countries with a particular focus on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); the global water crisis and impacts on global health; and the environmental burden of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Marquez has held distinguished international faculty appointments at The University of The Gambia and Gambia College School of Public Health; the Universite Gaston-Berger de Saint-Louis in Senegal; as an Erasmus Mundus Scholar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sante Publique (or EHESP, The French School of Public Health), and the University of Sheffield (UK) School of Health and Health Related Research (ScHARR); and as an Associate Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine-Center for Global Health.

Goleen Samari, PhD, MPH, MA is a public health demographer whose research focuses on several dimensions of social inequality and health in order to promote health equity. In particular, she focuses on how social inequities on the basis of migration, gender, race, and religion shape population health. Her work pays specific attention to populations in or from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and she has over a decade of experience working on health issues in the MENA. Dr. Samari was the first to draw attention to Islamophobia and racialization of religious minorities as a public health issue and is one of a few demographers focused on migration, gender, and health in the Middle East and North Africa. For the last five years, she has examined the global response to Syrian refugee women’s health in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Her work also considers how political and policy shifts shape demographic aspects of migration, immigrant families, and subsequent health behaviors and outcomes. She completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in demography at UT Austin and received her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She also has an M.A. in Islamic Studies from UCLA and an MPH in Community Health Sciences from UCLA. Her training and research uniquely position her for understanding the health needs of migrant and displaced populations in the MENA region.

Mesfin Teklu Tessema, MD, MA., is the Head of the Health Unit at the International Rescue Committee, where he leads IRC’s efforts in diverse areas of health programming and policy. He has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of public health, nutrition and humanitarian affairs. Prior to joining the IRC in 2017, Dr Tessema served in various positions and countries for international humanitarian organizations, most recently served as the global health lead for World Vision International. He also served as Director of Geneva office for World Vision International, Senior Nutritionist for Save the Children, and Reproductive Health Advisor for Marie Stopes International in Ethiopia. As a medical doctor, he practiced medicine in public and private health care settings in Ethiopia. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University, an affiliate to the John Hopkins University’s Center for Humanitarian Health, and a member of the Gavi vaccine alliance Partnership Team and the COVAX leadership group. Dr. Tessema served on the funding committee for Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises, as Civil Society representative in the Investors Group of the Global Financing Facility for RMNCAH, as the founder and co-director of the executive course on health diplomacy and humanitarian space at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. He is the author of the health chapter in the 2011 edition of the Sphere Handbook: humanitarian charter and minimum standards in humanitarian response. Dr Tessema earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Jimma University, Ethiopia, and holds a Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance from Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA.