PMA Ethiopia Research Mentorship Program: Mentee Spotlight
The PMA Ethiopia mentorship program builds research skills of PhD students from universities based in Ethiopia who are completing their PhD in public health. The program links PhD students to faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH) in the U.S., and faculty provide guidance on development of their research proposal and completion of dissertation research. The overall goal of the mentorship program is to build the research skills of Ethiopian PhD students in order to prepare them to engage in scientific research and knowledge generation in the field of public health.
This blog is part of series of posts featuring mentees of the second cohort to the PMA Ethiopia research mentorship program.
Name: Tariku Tesfaye Bekuma
University: Second year PhD student at Jimma University, Ethiopia
Faculty mentor: Professor Saifuddin Ahmed
Dissertation topic and overview: Inequities, predictors, and barriers to vaccination during infancy and its simultaneity with postpartum family planning (PPFP) uptake: Results from community level panel and facility level linked data
Short description: My dissertation will use a mixed methods approach to analyze inequities in vaccinations during the first year of life. Quantitative data from the PMA Ethiopia dataset, specifically panel and health facility data will be used. Qualitative data will be used to further explore any barriers to immunization schedule adherence.
What do you expect to gain from and accomplish during your participation in the mentorship program?
Through the program, I will have an opportunity to learn directly from experts and having Professor Saifuddin Ahmed as my mentor will allow me to gain knowledge and skills in advanced analysis methods relevant to my research objectives.
I plan to present the findings from my dissertation at various online and in-person national and international conferences and workshops. Finally, I plan to publish at least three quality papers from my dissertation with a reputable journal and finish my PhD program on time.
What are your plans after the mentorship?
I want to be an expert in child vaccination related research. As such, I would like to continue working on vaccination-related research ideas and topics that are not feasible to work on during this program. Furthermore, I would like to continue being an active member of the PMA Ethiopia, supporting the team with data analysis and writing manuscripts using the PMA Ethiopia data. I will also strive to continue my training as a researcher and gain skills and experience through a post-doctoral program. I would like to maximize the valuable experience I gained through this mentorship program by developing my own project proposal, seeking funding, and implementing it.
