People
Lynn P. Freedman, Director
Lynn P. Freedman is Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) program at the Mailman School of Public Health. As director of the Law & Policy Project at Columbia´s Mailman School of Public Health from 1997 to 2009, Lynn became a leading figure in the field of health and human rights, working worldwide with women´s groups and human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 1990, she worked as a practicing attorney in New York City.
Lynn has published widely on issues of maternal mortality and on health and human rights, with a particular focus on gender and women´s health. The current focus of Lynn’s research is on promoting inclusive health systems that can ensure equitable access to quality maternal and newborn health care. Increasingly, this research draws on insights and methodologies from implementation science to examine health interventions in their larger social and policy context. By researching in-depth the way programs are implemented as well as the content of the programs themselves, Lynn and colleagues are breaking new ground in addressing long-standing challenges in maternal and newborn health. Focus on implementation ensures that AMDD’s research relates to frontline realities, and is thus actionable and can be used to inform relevant policy. Recent work has examined social accountability and health governance; disrespect and abuse and quality of care in maternal health care; referral in maternal and newborn health systems; urban health, especially in slums, including the challenges and opportunities of informal systems; and issues surrounding human resource management, such as task-shifting, and posting and transfer practices in the health sector.
Lynn has served on the advisory boards of maternal health projects and human rights projects with programs in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. She received a law degree (JD) from Harvard University, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Columbia University, and a bachelor´s degree (BA) from Yale University.
Caitlin Warthin, Assistant Director
Caitlin Warthin is the Assistant Director at AMDD, focusing on measuring and improving the availability and quality of maternal health care, including dimensions of respectful maternity care. She also performs research related to AMDD's work on accountability in health systems, and has supported AMDD's EmOC task-shifting and referral portfolios. Caitlin has previously worked in monitoring and evaluation for reproductive health programs in the Philippines, as well as global EmOC programming for USAID's Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program. She holds an MPH in Population and Family Health from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Williams College.
Wasihun Andualem Gobezie, Senior Technical Advisor
Wasihun Andualem Gobezie is a Senior Technical Advisor at AMDD. He has over 17 years of experience in the field of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, working in diverse settings and at different levels of expertise. Since 2008, he has played a critical role in the execution of several emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) national assessments in a variety of African countries. Mr. Wasihun has published a number of articles based on results from these EmONC assessments, and has presented his analyses in both national and international fora. He has also served in senior positions at different international NGOs, leading and implementing high quality monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management projects with diverse stakeholders. He is an expert in quantitative and qualitative research methods, program evaluation, database management, and geomapping, and has provided support to countries in study design, sampling techniques, developing study tools, statistical analysis (including complex regression model fitting), report writing, and overall research management. He holds a Master of Public Health degree as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in biostatistics.
Emily Keyes, Senior Technical Advisor
Emily Keyes has worked as researcher since 2007 focused on health services research in the areas of quality of intrapartum services, maternal and newborn mortality reduction and health system strengthening. Since 2008, Emily has acted as Technical Advisor to the Averting Maternal Death and Disability program (AMDD) at Columbia University. She has worked with national and regional ministries of health, UN partners and local NGOs to support efforts to improve the availability, access and quality of obstetric and newborn services in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Tanzania and Mozambique. Currently, Emily leads evaluations of the impact of an mHealth intervention to improve intrapartum care in Tanzania and the impact of solar electrification on the quality of health services in Zambia, as well as geographic analyses to improve access to quality intrapartum services in Mozambique. She also contributes to a UNICEF-funded effort to fill gaps in global knowledge of the status of WASH in health care facilities. Emily has expertise in the areas of quantitative analyses, spatial analyses, data collection and management, as well as maternal and newborn health, emergency obstetric and newborn care and emergency referral systems.
She received her MPH in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health. Emily also holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Villanova University.