I spent 2 decades in medical practice (Family Medicine) partly in the Philippines and mostly in the Marshall Islands. With a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine degree in 1999 (Tulane University, New Orleans), I went on to become a Health Program Manager in 2000 and Director of the Community Health Programs in 2004 of International Aid in Spring Lake, Michigan and later the Health Advisor of World Renew in Grand Rapids, MI (2009 to the present.)
In my public health role, I had supported programs in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Honduras, Indonesia, and the USAID-funded child survival projects in the Philippines, Bangladesh and India. I provide technical support to health programs that focus on maternal and child health in districts with a high population of indigenous communities, using equity strategies based on community approaches, community mobilization/participation and public–private partnerships.
I continued on to take more GLP courses: The Art of Effective Facilitation course in 2014, and Introduction to Dialogue Education: Step-by-Step Teleclass in 2015. I have used this knowledge in Dialogue Education in facilitating Behavior Change Communication (BCC) workshops (Designing Behavior Change, CORE Group) in Bangladesh, India and Kenya and workshops on Health Equity in Nicaragua and Michigan. I plan to use what I know in facilitation and Dialogue Education to further my organization’s capacity-building efforts for its ministry staffs, in-country partners and the communities they serve.