SAM Relapse Research Dissemination Event: Recorded Sessions and Speakers
Session Recordings
Opening Remarks
Tobias Stillman (Action Against Hunger) and Shanda Steimer (USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance)
Presentation 1
Severe Acute Malnutrition Relapse Study Results: Post-SAM Vulnerability, Relapse Rates, and Contextual Factors Influencing Relapse Rates
Sarah King (CDC) and Heather Stobaugh (Action Against Hunger)
Presentation 2
Context Influences Relapse: Seasonality and Geospatial Patterns of Post-SAM Relapse Anastasia Marshak (Tufts) and Amber Dismer (CDC)
Presentation 3
Cost of Relapse: Costing Analyses
Chloe Puett (Consultant)
Panel Discussion & Q+A
Reporting Post-Treatment Outcomes
Grace Funnell (UNICEF), Chytanya Kompala (Eleanor Crook Foundation), Casie Tesfai (International Rescue Committee)
Presentation 4
Clinical and Environmental Risk Factors: Child and Household Associations
Anastasia Marshak (Tufts) and Lauren D’Mello-Guyett (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Presentation 5
Biological Risk Factors: Enteric Pathogens, Microbiome, and Immune Function
Oliver Cumming (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Drew Schwarts/Connie Yang (Washington University of St. Louis), and Indi Trehan (University of Washington)
Presentation 6
Integrating WASH and SAM Treatment: ‘TISA Trial’ Design
Oliver Cumming (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Dieynaba S’N Diaye (Action Against Hunger)
Closing Remarks
Heather Stobaugh (Action Against Hunger) and Tobias Stillman (Action Against Hunger)
Event Speakers
Dr. Heather Stobaugh, Action Against Hunger
Dr. Heather Stobaugh, MS, MPH, PhD, possesses a unique blend of on-the-ground program implementation experience with high-quality scientific research in global nutrition. Dr. Stobaugh has over thirteen years of experience engaging in variety of research studies as well as technical advising for development and emergency nutrition programs around the world. She continues her research at Action Against Hunger with aims to identify innovative solutions to managing malnutrition and improving the evidence-base behind nutrition policies and programs. Dr. Stobaugh has a Ph.D. in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University and teaches at the graduate level of Tufts.
Sarah King, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Sarah King, MPH, is a nutritional epidemiologist serving on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Humanitarian Health Team where she provides global technical assistance to partners on emergency nutrition programming and implementation research. She has over nine years of experience and holds expertise in acute malnutrition treatment, assessments, and operational research. Her current research portfolio includes investigating relapse, treatment quality and variations in treatment protocols to increase effectiveness and coverage. Sarah holds a Master of Public Health.
Shanda Steimer, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance
Shanda Steimer, MPH, serves as the Director for the Office of Technical and Program Quality in the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), which leads the U.S. Government’s international disaster assistance efforts. Ms. Steimer is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service with more than 20 years of development and humanitarian experience. Prior to joining BHA, she served on the Agency’s COVID-10 Task Force as the Pillar Lead for Program and Strategic Planning. She has further served in Mali, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, and Zambia managing a diverse range of USAID health programming, as well as portfolios in education, agriculture, resilience, and the environment.
Dr. Anastasia Marshak, Tufts University
Anastasia Marshak, MA, PhD., is a Research Assistant Professor at the Feinstein International Center within Tufts University where her research focuses on improving the understanding of the drivers of malnutrition in complex contexts. With a background in quantitative economics, nutrition, and humanitarian assistance, Dr. Marshak’s uses her expertise to advocate for more data-driven and evidence-based approaches in issues of childhood malnutrition, women’s health in early marriages, the intersection of livelihoods and nutrition, and human rights abuses in fragile contexts.
Dr. Indi Trehan, University of Washington
Dr. Indi Trehan, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Global Health, and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. He has worked in childhood wasting for over 15 years focusing his clinical and research work on improving the acute care of malnourished children in both inpatient and outpatient settings, optimizing treatment protocols, and education of health care workers. Dr. Trehan’s particular expertise is in the interface between infections, immunity, and malnutrition. He advises multiple humanitarian aid and research organizations, including the World Health Organization, on policies and research related to childhood malnutrition.
Oliver Cumming, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Oliver Cumming is the Director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – an inter-disciplinary group of researchers focused on the public health aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene. His current research includes epidemiological studies to assess the impact of environmental health interventions on childhood enteric infection, undernutrition, and oral vaccine failure in different regions of the world. He has published extensively, including over a hundred scientific articles, has advised various governments and international agencies on related policy and currently serves as the co-Chair for the Lancet Commission on WASH and Health.
Dr. Drew Schwartz, Washington University of St. Louis
Drew Schwartz, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Molecular Microbiology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine. His laboratory is focused on the role of the gut microbiome during pediatric development and disease. Recently he has shown that a week of amoxicillin for severe acute malnutrition improves long-term gut microbiome development without increases in gut microbiome antibiotic resistance (Schwartz et al. 2023, Lancet Microbe).
Tobias Stillman, Action Against Hunger
Tobias Stillman, Director of Technical Services and Innovation for Action Against Hunger, has spent the past three decades advancing global nutrition and food security in a wide range of senior advisory and leadership roles. He has worked in 28 countries, has been posted in both development and humanitarian settings, and has served within government, non-government, and multi-lateral institutions. Mr. Stillman has also lectured on emergency nutrition and food security at Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities, and on behavior change and infant and young child feeding at the University of Zimbabwe. Mr. Stillman holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and university qualifications in Humanitarian Health and Nutritional Anthropology.
Dr. Lauren D’Mello-Guyett, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Lauren D’Mello-Guyett currently works at LSHTM as an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Health Group which is the focus of the School’s work on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health. Her research is focused on the epidemiology of WASH related diseases including cholera and undernutrition and the evaluation of WASH interventions across sub-Saharan Africa.
Amber Dismer, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Amber Dismer, MPH, is a Health Scientist / Geographic Information Systems specialist in the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Public Health Emergencies Branch (GPHEB). For the past 11+ years, Amber has worked in emergency responses, prolonged humanitarian crises, and across public health, nutrition, and WASH projects in a variety of contexts (Haiti, DRC, Guinea, Central Asian Region, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc.). She thoroughly enjoys teaching, exploring data collection software and analytic platforms, providing field support to survey teams, and road transport network analyses.
Dieynaba S N’Diaye, Action Contre la Faim
Dr Dieynaba N’Diaye is a researcher in global health, with a background in epidemiology and health economics, a PhD from the University of Paris, and a post-doctorate from McGill University. Most of her research focuses on bridging the gap between operational and implementation research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and policy development. She has been working at Action Contre la Faim France since 2017. Her role is to oversee and support the development of operational and implementation of research projects. She promotes research learning from humanitarian programs, identifies research gaps and builds partnerships to improve the health of vulnerable populations.
Connie Yang, Washington University in St. Louis
Connie Yang, BSc, is an MD/PhD student from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently pursuing her graduate studies in the lab of Dr. Drew Schwartz where she seeks to investigate the different interactions present at host pathogen interfaces that affect human development and disease.