Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative
Message from the HHI Leads
Dilshad Jaff, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health Leadership and Practice, and HHI Lead
Currently, two billion people live in countries where development outcomes are affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). By 2030, nearly 50% of the global poor will live in such situations. These circumstances call for attention and action worldwide.In 2024, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) projected that 306 million people would need humanitarian assistance and protection, an increase of 30% from 2022 estimates [Source]. The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has reported that over 117 million people – or 1 in every 70 on the planet – have been forcibly displaced, the vast majority of whom are residing in the Global South. This represents an almost 50% increase since 2020 [Source].
Sheila Leatherman, CBE, Hon FRCP
Professor of Global Health, Department of Health and Management, Senior Faculty Advisor
Crises related to war, internal conflict, fragile governments unable to provide essential services, and climate and water related emergencies are all ever-present challenges, and ones often addressed by acute crisis responses to immediate humanitarian needs for shelter, protection, medical care, and more. Indeed, humanitarian aid has traditionally been defined as short-term, emergency assistance.However, in reality, these complex crises are often protracted and require long-term solutions. How do we move to proactive management and mitigation of the impact of crises and more predictably build resiliency in partnership with affected populations? As global health professionals, we seek to contribute to that looming question in the pursuit of advancing health care and health systems and improving health outcomes and well-being for people across the world.”
– Dilshad Jaff, MD, MPH, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Leadership and Practice and Sheila Leatherman, CBE, Hon FRCP, Professor of Global Health in Health Policy and Management
Our Mission
We in the Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative, in collaboration with and support of partnering organizations and collaborators, work to address multiple and diverse humanitarian situations in ways that include;
- Evidence scanning for what works to improve health care and health outcomes in FCV and humanitarian settings
- Action research for rapid uptake of practices and interventions that can be adopted and adapted in the front lines of providing health care
- Capacity strengthening for NGOS and governments
- Strategic advising
- Monitoring and evaluation
For any general questions about HHI, please contact Amy Kryston at [email protected].
The Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative offers Gillings graduate student opportunities to engage in service projects of a year (or longer) duration, with a supporting honorarium award. Each intern works on one or more service projects focused on supporting international and national NGOs or multilateral health organizations in a specified body of work meeting the evaluation, policy, practice, and service needs specified by collaborating NGOs.
Degree program: MPH (Global Health)
Hadi’s interests center on humanitarian and refugee health. Before beginning his MPH, Hadi earned a degree in Biology and Asian Studies (Arab Cultures) from UNC Chapel Hill. During his undergraduate career, he gained experience in research and fieldwork through his internship with the Jordan Health Aid Society, where he studied medication adherence at the Za’atari refugee camp’s maternal clinic, and experience in academic writing through his senior honors thesis on treatment and health literacy of diabetic Syrian refugees in Jordan. Hadi has also been involved in volunteer work with the Refugee Community Partnership in Carrboro and Mariam Clinic in Cary. As an HHI intern, he is working with the Syrian Society for Social Development (SSSD) to help deliver healthcare and implement medical and social programs for Syrians as they work to recover from civil war.
Degree Program: MPH (Global Health)
Annie is interested in leveraging data to address health disparities and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. She has a background in Biology, earning her BS from UNC Chapel Hill. As a Gillings HHI intern, she will be working with Interburns, a UK-based organization dedicated to improving the quality of burn care in low-income countries and conflict settings. In this role, she will be conducting an impact analysis of their international clinical work in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Degree program: MPH (Global Health)
Anoushka is interested in monitoring and evaluation and implementation science, with a focus on maternal and child health and the infectious and chronic diseases that impact these populations. Before coming to Gillings, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of South Carolina and worked in the Chronic Care Management department at a hospital, supporting care coordination for patients with long-term health conditions. At HHI, she is working with CFK Africa, a Kenya-based NGO that provides health care, education, and economic opportunities to people living in informal settlements, to support monitoring and evaluation of their public health programs.
Degree program: MPH (Leadership in Practice)
Laila is interested in improving health outcomes for marginalized groups and reducing national and global health disparities. Prior to beginning her MPH, she obtained degrees in Biology and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies from Duke University. She has previously worked on projects such as DukeEngage where she designed and facilitated education and health programming for middle-school age girls from low-income areas. Laila is the administrative intern for HHI, where she will use her background in program management and communication to assist with the implementation of HHI events and share the important work of her fellow interns with the broader Gillings community.
Degree program: PhD in Maternal and Child Health (epidemiology minor)
Aparna Kachoria is a doctoral student in the MCH department. Before joining UNC, she received her MPH in global health epidemiology from the University of Michigan and spent five years working in quality improvement, health services research, and overseeing mental health research studies in Central Massachusetts. Her current research interests include maternal empowerment and perinatal mental health, and improving overall health equity and quality both globally and here in the US. Aparna is currently a research assistant on two studies; an intervention to reduce hypertension in pregnancy in North Carolina and a project to better understand adverse childhood outcomes and perinatal depression in rural Pakistan. At HHI, Aparna works with a humanitarian partner in Sudan on their mixed methods monitoring and evaluation efforts to assess current programs and develop a long-term strategy to improve access, effectiveness and resource allocation of multiple programs and interventions.
Degree Program: PharmD/MPH
Emma is a dual degree PharmD/MPH candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a mission to advance equitable access to medications. She earned a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Medical Anthropology, where she developed a deep interest in how broader healthcare infrastructure converges to shape patient outcomes. Emma participated in an implementation science practicum at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, using standardized patient-pharmacist encounters to refine a pragmatic counseling framework for addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural communities. She also served as a health policy intern at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, contributing to real-world evidence analyses assessing the clinical and system-level impact of the pharmacogenomic biomarker CYP2D6. Her leadership as Pharmacy Director of Bridge to Care at UNC’s Student Health Action Coalition deepened her commitment to community-based care and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a Gillings HHI intern, Emma is excited to contribute to global health capacity-building in resource-limited settings. She is now thrilled to join Interburns, where she will integrate her policy insight, clinical experience, and passion for medication access to expand high-quality burn care for underserved populations worldwide.
Degree Program: MPH (Population Health for Clinicians)
Dee is a recent (Class of 2025) graduate of the Infectious Disease Fellowship at UNC and is currently in the Preventive Medicine Residency (Class of 2026) while completing her MPH studies. Prior to her arrival at UNC, she completed her Internal Medicine Residency in New York City and medical school training in the Caribbean at the University of the West Indies. Her humanitarian interests began in 2019 when she witnessed the power of communities to work with international organizations to provide education and increase healthcare access to those in need in South Africa through a mission trip there. Through the mentorship of the social innovation in health initiative (SIHI) hub at UNC she, along with support from other Caribbean colleagues and international public health organizations, were able to re-introduce a similar concept to the Caribbean in the beginning of 2025 with the long-term plan of establishing a productive SIHI hub in the English-speaking Caribbean. Her research interests include preventive care services for the HIV population. During her HHI year she will be working on program monitoring and evaluation with the ALIGHT group in Southern Sudan.
Degree Program: PharmD/MPH
Keaton is a current dual-degree PharmD./MPH student at Gillings and the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. They have a background in Chemistry and Hispanic Studies, earning their BS and BA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is interested in humanitarian work dealing with the intersection of population health for migrant and LGBTQ+ communities, particularly utilizing the practice of pharmacy to address the scarcity of resources and support for queer healthcare in rural and or low-income communities. As an HHI intern, they are working with AMOS Health and Hope, a Nicaragua-based primary healthcare NGO, assisting with the improved development, education and resources for the program’s sexual and reproductive health and maternal and child health programs.
AMOS Health & Hope is a community-based NGO that empowers local health workers to deliver primary and preventive care in underserved areas. AMOS has trained over 670 community health workers across 25 communities, focusing on maternal, child, and chronic illness care. The UNC collaboration centers on monitoring and evaluation to assess impact and guide program redesign for greater community benefit.
SSSD is a national NGO supporting marginalized populations affected by the Syrian crisis, including internally displaced persons and returnees. SSSD addresses basic needs, health, WASH, shelter, psychosocial support, education, and livelihoods in hard-to-reach areas. The UNC project supports health program development by enhancing health records and data analysis to improve the delivery of care in conflict settings. In addition, UNC interns are supporting efforts to prepare grant applications, grant and article writing, and partnership building.
Alight works with displaced communities to improve health services through co-designed solutions. Building on a prior evaluation, the current project uses mixed methods research to address healthcare access and quality. The UNC team supports the analysis and translation of findings into actionable recommendations and peer-reviewed outputs to inform ongoing service improvements.
CFK Africa works to improve health and economic outcomes in Nairobi’s informal settlements. The UNC collaboration focuses on evaluating the Girls Empowerment Program. This provides mentorship and reproductive health education. Activities include survey design, data analysis, and baseline reporting. Additional work includes Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) capacity assessments and preparing maternal health datasets for future study.
HHI supports MSF’s clinical governance by developing evidence-based tools to enhance care quality, safety, and patient experience in conflict and emergency settings.
Interburns is a UK-based NGO improving burn care in LMICs across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The partnership includes developing a global burn mass casualty incident database and evaluating Interburns’ training programs to strengthen burn care delivery in humanitarian contexts.
Learn more about and watch previous Humanitarian Health Initiative events.
HHI hosts multiple small events with local humanitarians. To receive information about these events please email Laila Edelman at [email protected].
The Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross, hosted two weeks of immersive VR simulations and 360 degree videos that put students, faculty, and community members in the shoes of humanitarian responders.
Students were able to meet with Warner Passanisi, a local humanitarian who has decades of global experience. He most recently worked in Poland with Ukranian refugees. Students were able to hear from Warner, ask questions, and seek advice for humanitarian careers.
A showing of Bending the Arc and distribution of free copies of Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder was conducted in conjunction with the Gillings Student Global Health Committee in memory of Dr. Paul Farmer.
The Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative Seminar Series focused on the safety and security for health care workers and facilities in humanitarian settings. Panelists include Dr. Dilshad Jaff, Gillings Humanitarian Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor and Dr. Benjamin Meier, Professor of Global Health Policy and UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC Gillings alumna Anna Freeman, RN, MPH, nurse and quality improvement specialist, shared her humanitarian field experiences and work to improve quality of care with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders.
Dr. Dilshad Jaff, the Gillings Humanitarian Health Fellow, presented on his field experience working with the International Committee of the Red Cross in South Sudan.
Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Duke University
HHI Program Coordinator, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Humanitarian Health Specialist
Alumnae Technical Advisor
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine College
