In that time, I’ve supported clients around the globe, developed my skills, and worked alongside brilliant individuals in the development sector.
In September, I’ll move to London to pursue my MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
I’m extremely grateful for those who mentored me and will always admire the deeply impactful work that Databoom and our partners carry out daily. While narrowing down a list of highlights over these past years is extremely difficult, here are a few.
Working with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to help share its Safe Water Initiative story: Working alongside communication expert Amy Grossman, I had the unique privilege of co-authoring feature stories and two country profiles that detailed the Foundation’s work in Kabarole, Uganda, and Amhara district, Ethiopia. Amy’s attention to detail, production pipeline facilitation, and ability to create a compelling story are unparalleled. With Amy’s guidance, our process worked like a well-oiled machine.
Collaborating with Mann Global Health to support a Gates-funded family planning market analysis: I supported a secondary analysis of DHS data and contributed to an analysis of supply-side data on contraceptive trends in Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. Prior to this project, I had limited experience working with ‘messy’ data, but Nora Miller took me under her wing and shared her tips and tricks in Statcomplier and Excel. Within a few weeks, I felt comfortable running descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis independently. Thanks Nora!
Working with ChildFund International to scale an M&E framework and set of methods to monitor the contribution of advocacy to the organization’s overall reach and impact goals: Databoom helped develop ChildFund’s theory of change and logic model for advocacy efforts in child protection. We also developed, piloted, and translated a global scorecard for field offices in 20+ countries to capture their on-the-ground advocacy activities. We collaborated with ChildFund stakeholders around the world. I especially loved the chance to work closely with Saranga Jayarathne who is based in Sri Lanka. Despite her packed schedule, time zone, or occasional load-shedding power outages, Saranga joined every call with a beautiful smile and genuine engagement. We even had the chance to work together in person in Washington, D.C., which was such a real treat!
While I’ve enjoyed these different projects, one constant has been my great fortune of working alongside Databoom’s Founder and Principal, Kim Longfield. I truly can’t think of another job opportunity where someone who is just starting out in their career would have so much exposure to the development sector and access to such deliberate mentorship. Kim found the perfect balance of allowing me to ‘watch and learn’ and giving me appropriate responsibility and ownership. Thanks Kim!
As I venture into this new chapter of my professional journey, I look back fondly on everything I’ve accomplished at Databoom while being ever grateful for the support and the doors opened for me. I look forward to doing the same for someone else someday. Everyone deserves the opportunity to own their successes and learn from their mistakes in a supportive, safe, and fun environment.
Bye for now!
