The Venture Strategies Team
|
Martha Campbell, PhD President/CEO and founder
Martha Madison Campbell is a political scientist and health policy specialist with interests in population, economics, issues of scale, and reproductive rights for women. In the
1990s she directed the population program in the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In
2000 she formed Venture Strategies to create large scale change where it is wanted in low resource countries around the world, while maintaining a compact structure. Dr. Campbell led the first comprehensive review of the broad range of barriers that stand between women in low resource settings and the family planning methods and information they need for managing their childbearing. She has written and spoken widely on the sensitivities and widespread silence around the subject of population growth, and the nature of conflicting perspectives in this area. Her academic degrees are from Wellesley College and the University of Colorado. She is a Lecturer in global health in the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley.
|
|
Lauren Harris, MA, MPH Director of Research and Policy

Lauren has extensive experience in the area
of international maternal and child health. Drawing on her background in
journalism, anthropology, and public health, she has worked
in United Nations organizations and
other international NGOs in Ecuador, Honduras, Uganda, Thailand and
Kenya. Prior to joining Venture Strategies she served as a
researcher for the Berkeley Human Rights Center, assisting in a project to
establish accountability for sexual assault in Kenya following the
2007
post-election violence. At Venture Strategies she works on health and population issues. Lauren holds a master in medical anthropology from University of South Florida and a master
in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.
|
|
Eliya Zulu, PhD Director of Development Policy

Dr. Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu earned his
PhD in Demography at the University of Pennsylvania, and is originally from
Malawi.
Before founding AFIDEP Dr. Zulu was the Deputy Director and
Director of Research at the acclaimed African Population and Health Research
Center (APHRC). He also headed at APHRC the Urbanization and Wellbeing Research
Program, and the Policy Engagement and Communications
Unit.
He is the
elected president of UAPS, the Union for African Population Studies, which has
a membership of 1,700.
In
Venture Strategies (VSHD) he holds the title of Director of Development Policy.
Dr Zulu's research and policy engagement
interests cover a wide range of issues in international development, including
population growth, urbanization, reproductive health, poverty, health systems,
and policy analysis.
|
|
Karen Pak Oppenheimer, MS, MPH Consultant
 Karen’s experience ranges from proteomics research, healthcare information technology, to
HIV/AIDS prevention. She has worked in both the public and private sectors including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oracle Corporation,
start-up biotechnology companies, UCSF, and most recently the nonprofit Venture Strategies for Health and Development. She also served as a contract program advisor at the United Nations Population Fund, China, based in Beijing. Her work there focused on advocating for the improvement of condom quality in China and its implication on
HIV/AIDS programs, and integrating HIV/AIDS services into the existing far-reaching family planning system. In 2008, Karen, through her work as a program manager at Venture Strategies, played a key role in the starting up of World Health Partners. Karen holds a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, a master of science in biotechnology from Northwestern University, and a master of public health from the University of California,
Berkeley.
|
|
Matthew Hamilton, MS, MPH

Matthew Hamilton graduated from
North Carolina State University in 2004 with BS degrees in physics and
mathematics. After graduation, Matt entered the Biomathematics Graduate Program
at NCSU, where he studied statistics and ecology. His research used
mathematical models and computer simulations to study mechanisms that generate
and sustain complexity in ecological systems. After graduating with an MS in
Biomathematics in 2007, Matt came to Berkeley to study global health and
development.
While enrolled in the Berkeley
MPH program, Matt worked for VSHD on two output-based aid programs in western
Uganda. Output-based aid (OBA) is a way to increase utilization of
facility-based health services by means of a direct subsidy in the form of a
voucher. Patients purchase vouchers at a subsidized price and trade them for
care at contracted private sector health care facilities, which then submit
claims for reimbursement. The first OBA program in Uganda, known as
HealthyLife, provided voucher patients with affordable testing and treatment
for sexually transmitted infections. Matt collaborated with Berkeley doctoral
student Ben Bellows to measure the program’s population impact and
cost-effectiveness.
After graduating in 2009, Matt stayed on at VSHD to conduct a population
survey and impact evaluation of the second OBA program in Uganda, known as
HealthyBaby, which provided poor mothers with access to
facility-based maternal
deliveries. Matt’s interests include impact evaluation, survey design, and causal
effect estimation; performance-based financing mechanisms; and private sector
health care in developing countries.
|
|
Joanna Ortega, MPH Candidate Intern
 Joanna Ortega is an MPH student in the Health and Social Behavior
program at UC Berkeley. She completed a BA in Global Studies at UC Santa
Barbara. Before coming to UC Berkeley, she spent two and a half years working
as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Ecuador. During her time in Ecuador, she worked
in a variety of areas such as microcredit, health education, malaria
prevention, demographic and epidemiologic data collection, and water and
sanitation, among others. One of her primary projects was the recruitment,
management, and training of a network of health promoters—local volunteers from
26 rural communities who received training in first-aid and other preventive
health strategies.
After returning to the U.S. from Ecuador, she
joined the board of directors of the Minga Foundation, a nonprofit that she
worked closely with during her time in the Peace Corps. As a board member, she
collaborates with a team to manage and support various projects aimed at
improving the health and well-being of people in developing countries primarily
through capacity-building.
She is passionate about improving access to family planning and
reducing maternal mortality in developing countries through programs that build
local capacity and support and empower people to make the changes they wish to
see in their communities.
|
|
Brandon Swansfeger, Research and Administration Specialist
 Prior to joining the Venture Strategies team in 2006, Brandon worked for the Bay Area International Group
(BIG) and for the Center for Entrepreneurship in International Health and Development
(CEIHD), both affiliated with the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. His work has included research and data analysis using the Demographic and Health Surveys in preparation for the publication of the article
“Barriers to Fertility Regulation”, recently published in the journal, Studies in Family. He received a
Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in 2010, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in
‘Health and Poverty in Developing Countries.’ His undergraduate thesis explored the potential scale-up of programs involving task-sharing of family planning services in sub-Saharan Africa.
|
|
Nadia Diamond-Smith, MSc Fellow in Global Health Research
 Prior to joining Venture Strategies for Health and
Development, Nadia worked as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Postgraduate
Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, doing a study
on maternal anemia in the low income and slum population.
While pursuing
her master's degree, Nadia focused her thesis research on malaria in pregnancy
in India. As an undergraduate, she
conducted thesis research on fertility decline in Southern India, specifically
looking at gender preference and sex selective practices.
Nadia also worked at
San Francisco General Hospital doing research on hepatitis B.
Nadia has participated in research
projects in Tanzania on contraceptive use and maternal mortality while an
intern with the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability, and in
rural Guatemala on the effects of indoor air pollution on maternal and child
health.
Nadia received a master of science degree from the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a bachelor of arts in Human Biology
from Brown University.
|
|
Nuriye Nalan Sahin Hodoglugil, MD, MA, DrPH VSHD Reproductive Health Fellow
|
|
|