Molly Klarman,

I came to Dr. Nelson’s lab in December 2017 after having spent the previous seven years working at two health and community development based NGO’s in rural Haiti. Prior to that I was involved in research in both Latin America and the US spanning diverse fields from household water purification to development of diagnostic tests for parasitic diseases to best agricultural practices for watershed management.

My work with the INACT study involves overseeing all aspects of a needs analysis to investigate the scenario of how does a typical Haitian family deal with onset of illness during the nighttime hours? The study also aims to understand related questions such as what are the specific causes of household diarrhea in children under 5 and can community water pumps be used for bio-surveillance. The resulting data will guide the design of an intervention with the goal of improving access to healthcare at nighttime for Haitian families.

I am especially drawn to the work being done at the Nelson lab because of its focus on bridging the gap between research and actionable public health improvements and I am excited to have the opportunity to contribute to this endeavor.