Key Leadership

Sunita Kishor

Director

Livia Montana

Deputy Director

Gisele Dunia

Senior Advisor for Capacity Strengthening

Joanna Lowell

Senior Science Advisor

Kerry MacQuarrie

Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis

Sarah Balian

Senior Advisor for Communication

Survey and Technical Leadership

Trevor Croft

Technical Director

Keith Purvis

Director, Software Application Engineer Lead

Emily Eckert

Senior Finance and Contracts Manager

Gulnara Semenov

Senior Survey Coordinator & Health Advisor

Joy Fishel

Senior Survey Coordinator  & HIV Coordinator

Anjushree Pradhan

Senior Survey Coordinator

Topical Leadership

Ben Mayala

Senior GIS Coordinator

Sorrel Namaste

Senior Nutrition Advisor

Ruilin Ren

Senior Sampling Coordinator

Cameron Taylor

Malaria Coordinator

 

Key Leadership Biographies


SUNITA KISHOR
Director

Dr. Kishor is a gender expert, demographer, and survey specialist with 20 years of experience in the collection of high-quality gender data in developing countries. She has been responsible for the design, implementation, and analysis of questionnaire modules on women's empowerment and domestic violence in population-based surveys. Dr. Kishor works with DHS staff and stakeholders to integrate gender into implementation and research activities, develops gender-sensitive indicators and dissemination materials, and helps develop and update the Gender Corner of the DHS Web site. She also co-managed the third National Family Health Survey in India, a DHS survey of more than 100,000 households, with 200,000 individuals interviewed in all Indian states. Dr. Kishor has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Maryland College Park. up-arrow

LIVIA MONTANA
Deputy Director

Dr. Montana joined the DHS staff in 2019 from the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, where she was a Research Scientist and Director of Research. She is a survey and research expert with hands-on experience with household surveys along the entire survey continuum including planning, budgeting, contracting, questionnaire design, piloting, training, and analysis. Over the course of her career at Harvard and the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she directed longitudinal surveys in multiple countries. She also worked for The DHS Program earlier in her career from 1999-2007. She brings critical management, mentoring, and leadership to The DHS Program. She completed a master’s degree in Population Geography at UNC-Chapel Hill, and holds a Doctorate of Science (SD) in Population and Reproductive Health from the Harvard School of Public Health with minors in demographic and spatial methods. up-arrow

GISELE DUNIA
Senior Advisor for Capacity Strengthening

Dr. Dunia provides technical guidance and oversees the implementation of plans to strengthen individual and institutional capacity. She is responsible for the overall management of the Global Capacity Strengthening Strategy at the global and country levels. Dr. Dunia is a global health professional with 15 years of experience in clinical and managerial capacity building, coaching and mentoring, team building, and organizational strengthening, working with complex developing programs in several African countries and in Haiti. She has worked to design and implement capacity strengthening programs at the local, national, and global levels. She also has technical expertise in RMNCAH, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and malaria as well as related health systems components. She has experience presenting and sharing information with audiences with diverse backgrounds. Dr. Dunia has an M.B.A. in Information System Management from the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University, an M.P.H. in Health and Development from Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium, and an M.D. from University of Lubumbashi, in DR Congo. up-arrow

JOANNA LOWELL
Senior Science Advisor

Dr. Lowell joined The DHS Program in 2009 as a Survey Manager overseeing surveys in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Liberia, Lesotho, South Africa, and the Philippines. She developed extensive experience in survey and questionnaire design, training field staff to collect questionnaire and biomarker data, monitoring fieldwork, and analyzing, writing, and disseminating survey results. In 2018, Dr. Lowell became The DHS Program’s first Senior Science Advisor. In this new role, she drafted and implemented The DHS Program’s Innovation Strategy. The Innovation Strategy emphasizes the importance of developing new tools, methods, and partnerships to meet data demand, protect and improve data quality, strengthen country capacity, contain costs, and save time. Dr. Lowell also serves as The Program’s point person on vaccination-related data. She has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Colorado and an MPH with a concentration in Infectious Disease from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. up-arrow

KERRY MACQUARRIE
Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis

Kerry MacQuarrie is the Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis at The Demographic and Health Surveys Program.  In this role, Dr. MacQuarrie is responsible for developing research agendas that showcase advanced analysis and synthesis of DHS Program data, through DHS analytical studies and methodological reports and qualitative studies. She contributes to assessments of data quality and development and testing of measures using DHS data.  Dr. MacQuarrie also trains counterparts in low-and middle-income countries to analyze DHS data and contributes to strategies to facilitate the use of DHS data globally.  She has overall responsibility for the DHS Fellows Program and workshops.  Dr. MacQuarrie is trained as a social demographer and earned her PhD at the University of Washington. up-arrow

SARAH BALIAN
Senior Advisor for Communication

Ms. Balian is a health communication specialist with 15 years of professional experience in designing communication strategies and products for a diverse range of audiences. She is responsible for the overall management of global and country-level dissemination of DHS Program data with the ultimate goal of increasing data use for decision making. Ms. Balian has been with The DHS Program since 2010 and has led the development of the project's suite of tutorial videos on YouTube. Ms. Balian has worked to strengthen capacity in communication and dissemination of DHS Program data in multiple countries, including Senegal, Haiti, Tanzania, Benin, Ghana, and the Maldives. She has a special interest in monitoring and evaluation and co-leads The DHS Program's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan. Ms. Balian has an M.P.H. in health education from Emory University in Atlanta. up-arrow

 

Email addresses for The DHS Program staff are in this form: first name + last name +@icf.com
(Example: Jane Doe, Jane.Doe@icf.com)

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