Guest Speaker Bio - Ms. Shawn Malarcher

Ms. Shawn Malarcher is a Health Science Specialist for the Office of Population and Reproductive Health at United States Agency for International Development (USAID) specializing in utilization of evidence-based practices in family planning programming. She has 15 years of experience managing and supporting social science research in developing countries. Her work is mainly focused on issues of quality improvement, expanding access, equity, community-based services, and gender. Prior to USAID, Shawn served as a scientist with the World Health Organization's (WHO) Department of Reproductive Health and Research. While at WHO, Ms. Malarcher contributed to the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health examining inequities and social determinants of sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining WHO, she managed a large operations research cooperative agreement for USAID supporting research in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Shawn also served as the coordinator for USAID's Repositioning Family Planning initiative. Shawn received an MPH in epidemiology from Tulane University and has lived and worked in Kazakhstan, Ghana, and Switzerland.