GHELI’s Faculty Director, Dr. Sue J. Goldie, was profiled in a recent report released by the MacArthur Foundation which detailed the history of one of their longest running programs – the Population and Reproductive Health Program. The Foundation supports creative people and robust institutions and networks which focus on building a more just, prosperous, and peaceful world, and in 2010 Dr. Goldie was granted the prestigious MacArthur award “for genius and creativity” in applying the tools of decision science to public health. Internationally recognized for mathematical disease modeling and analyses to guide public health decision making, Goldie’s research has focused on viruses of global health importance, cancer prevention, reproductive health, and maternal mortality.
Within the report detailing the Population and Reproductive Health Program’s narrative history, the authors call out the work of Dr. Goldie for her efforts in mathematical modeling and analyses to guide public health decision-making related to maternal mortality. A summary of her work is provided on the MacArthur Foundation’s website, which reads:
“Incorporating mathematical modeling, the science of medical decision-making, and risk analysis, [Goldie] has successfully identified important new strategies to improve women’s health in underserved populations. Together with her collaborators, [she] has developed complex and comprehensive epidemiological models for diseases such as HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, and hepatitis C. By weighing disease characteristics and quantitatively assessing possible health interventions for potential populations, Goldie has translated her models into actionable information to guide global health interventions and policies…She has taken her findings to the field, creating practical, sustainable cervical cancer-screening programs in Haiti, India, Kenya, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand.”
Dr. Goldie continues to work with mathematical modeling as she directs the Center for Health Decision Science, while tinkering with innovative methods to teach about complex global challenges at GHELI. To learn more about the various dimensions of her work, feel free to explore her website. To dive deeper into the topic of Reproductive health, check out GHELI’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Resource Pack.