Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself

A: I am a Kwanyama from northern side of Namibia called Ovamboland. At the age of 6, I was forced to flee my country Namibia and live-in exile as refuge in Cuba. After years in exile, my country Namibia got independence in 1990 and I had to return home 1995. I started working as Statistician for Central Bureau of Statistics which become Namibia Statistics Agency, responsible for sampling design, weight calculation, coordinating surveys, field staff training, field work monitoring. I worked in many local surveys this include Labour Force Surveys, Namibia Households Income and Expenditure Survey, Namibia Population Based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA)survey and Namibia Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) currently in the process of publishing the results. As a wife, mother, and employee, I successfully graduate in BSc. Applied Mathematics and Statistics from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in 2013. In 2016 I also attended Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques in Michigan. I worked on protocol development and a clinical trial design for NAMPHIA.

Q: Why did you decide to attend the UW for graduate school? 

A: After working in Namibia Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) with experts Alison Ensminger and Luke Davies from I-TECH and CDC Atlanta Department of Global Health, University of Washington. I become more interested in the public health field. I was eager to learn from these leading experts in Global Health. I have learned that the UW is widely known for its top ranked research university with a strong international presence in public health. I believe that my enrolment into MPH, is a right step to my PhD in Biostatistics to able me to   apply evidence-based strategies across the entire communication of life cycle, design medical survey and evaluating the impact of social policy in the areas of health, crime and victimization, social welfare and family leave in my country Namibia.  

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR RESEARCH INTERESTS?

A: My primary goals are to do data analysis for clinical trial research, study design and methods of analysis that can help to solve real life health problem. My research interests in clinical epidemiology, health population, as well as development of statistical methods. 

Q: What are you enjoying most about your graduate program?

A: To be honest, even though this was a challenging year, due to COVID 19. I really enjoy everything in graduate program. I learned a lot from my cohorts; therefore, I am very much thankful for the support I am getting from my classmates. I am inspired on how graduate student supportive to each other, but mostly the unconditional support from the graduate management team to all of us graduates students.