Research assistantships 2019/20

Liz is currently ​completing an MSc in Global Health Policy at LSE. Alongside this masters, she works as a part-time research assistant on the Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE) project, aiming to support the development of policy responses to dementia in middle-income countries.

Prior to this, she graduated with a BA in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Her final year dissertation was a quantitative research project investigating the relationship between personality and political orientation. Key research interests include mental-health policy, gender and health, and risky health behaviours. 

An MSc candidate at LSE and LSHTM, Bénédicte Bicaba is eager to grow as a global mental-health professional with CPEC. She earned her degrees in Medical Anthropology/Global Health and French from the University of Washington in Seattle. Prior to pursuing an MSc in Health Policy Planning and Financing, she managed programmes at Facing Homelessness, a community-building non-profit in Seattle, Washington. Her commitment to community and mental-health advocacy is shown by her involvement with civil society organisations such as: Feet First, a policy-based advocacy nonprofit; the Bailey Boushay House, a treatment facility in Seattle catering to the health of people living with HIV/AIDS; and (as President of the Board) Botiminto, an education-focused international non-profit benefitting Zigla, Burkina Faso.

Sam recently graduated from Nottingham with a degree in Chemistry. His Master's research was in the area of Computational Chemistry. He is supporting data analysis as part of the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Adult Social Care.

He can be reached at s.j.canning@lse.ac.uk.

Ruben is a research assistant within the Adult Social Care Research Unit (ASCRU) at CPEC. He is currently studying for his MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing at LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Prior to this, he obtained a Bachelor of Science from California State University, Northridge, in Healthcare Management, where his interest in statistics and health economics was first sparked. After graduation, he worked as a business intelligence analyst at a home-care agency in the Netherlands.

He is working with Dr Fernández, focusing on the use of data analytics and statistics in the field of social care across the United Kingdom. 

Gabrielle is currently completing her MSc in International Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her background is in Biomedical Science, having completed an undergraduate degree in this area at Imperial College London. She has previously completed two research internships focusing on infectious disease, but she would like to understand more about social care. Her interests are in Global Health, specifically social determinants of health and health policy, having completed a specialisation year in her undergraduate degree. 

Having previously worked in care management, Kaylee values person-centred comprehensive care. She recognises that it is essential for health care and social care to be seamlessly integrated in order to improve patient experience and systems performance. Helping people navigate fragmented health systems in developed and developing countries led Kaylee to pursue an MSc in International Health Policy at LSE. Holding a BSc in Community Health from Western Washington University, Kaylee has had a fulfilling international career. Her background includes global health programming in Peru, chronic disease management at community health centres in the United States, and digital innovation for women’s leadership in Thailand. She is excited to work with CPEC and use evidence to support positive change in health systems, so that people everywhere can live with dignity.

Charles is a Research Assistant with CPEC, currently completing an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing at LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to moving to London, Charles completed his medical degree at McGill University and is taking a hiatus from his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He previously worked at the WHO headquarters as a research intern in the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health, looking into quality-of-care indicators in maternal and newborn health in sub-Saharan countries. 

His research interests include evidence synthesis, implementation of evidence-based policies, decision-making at the patient and population level, economic analysis of interventions impacting women's health, vulnerable populations, and social care. In the future, Charles wishes to incorporate clinical practice with evidence-based policy in order to provide sustainable interventions that will improve the health of vulnerable populations.

Jasmine has a background in medicine (MD, University of Ottawa) and research administration. She is currently studying Health Policy, Planning, and Financing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She aspires to be a geriatrician involved in improving quality of life for ageing populations through clinical work and health policy advocacy. 

Jasmine's interest in healthcare and ageing was inspired by her grandmother and great-grandfather, both of whom are examples of living life to its fullest potential. 

Uchenna Chukwuemeka Nkwonta is a Global Health Policy student at LSE with considerable clinical and volunteer experience in the delivery of medical and support services to patients in rural and urban settings in sub-Saharan Africa. He has been involved in research projects involving cost-of-illness analysis of diabetes among adult patients living with type II diabetes in Rwanda, having also assessed prevalence and coping strategies of depression amongst medical students in south-eastern Nigeria.

Uchenna has a keen interest in health system research that can assist decision-making and financing of healthcare delivery strategies for non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the areas of mental health and social care.

He has a medical degree from the University of Nigeria and a Master's degree in Global Health Delivery from the University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda. His particular interests are health system research, mental health, social care, health system strengthening, health policy analysis, and monitoring and evaluation.

Kevin is a research assistant at CPEC and a full-time MSc student in Applied Social Data Science at the LSE. He has an MSc in CEMS/International Management from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the LSE.

Kevin's research interests include: classification algorithms for mental health disorders, text-mining data on social care providers, and quantitative text analysis of mental-health intervention strategies.

Katarina holds a BA in Economics and is currently undertaking a Master's in International Health Policy (Health Economics). Prior to joining CPEC, she spent three years working on an evaluation of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington DC, where she developed a strong interest in using quantitative analyses to provide solutions to issues concerning access, quality, and efficiency of healthcare services.

Wenbo is currently an MSc student in Applied Social Data Science at LSE with an interest in applying data-science methods to various public health topics. His work at CPEC focuses primarily on assisting Sam Rickman's research on using machine learning and natural language processing methods to extract information from existing care data to help evaluate the effectiveness of health and social care services and systems.

Prior to attending LSE, Wenbo completed a Master's of Public Health at the University of Sydney and a bachelor's degree in Public Health at Nanjing Medical University. He has worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of Sydney and a research intern at Duke University (China campus).

Marselia is currently syudying for an MSc in Global Health Policy at LSE. Prior to this, she was based in Singapore and worked in market research and management consulting within the health and life sciences industry in Southeast Asia. Her commercial research projects were in areas such as market entry of new drugs for non-communicable diseases, pricing strategy and reimbursement mechanisms, pharmaceutical brand management, pharmaceutical distribution, healthcare manpower planning, healthcare facilities' performance evaluation, and public and private health insurance market analysis.

Her current research interest is in mental-health care and social care policy research. She is as a research assistant on the STRiDE project that aims to strengthening responses to dementia in developing countries. Marselia holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Singapore Management University.

Beatrix recently graduated from Bristol University with a BSc in Neuroscience and is currently studying for an MSc in International Health Policy at LSE. Her main interests are in care planning and support for neurodegenerative diseases and mental health disorders. She worked alongside Dr Eva Bonin on a research project investigating the care systems and treatment provision of anorexia nervosa in England, Spain, and Germany.