What is a Health Campaign?
Health campaigns are time-bound, intermittent activities that address specific epidemiologic challenges, expediently fill delivery gaps, or provide surge coverage for health interventions. They can be used to prevent or respond to disease outbreaks, control or eliminate targeted diseases as a public health problem, eradicate a disease altogether, or achieve other health goals. Read more about why health campaigns are important.
Despite the many successes of health campaigns, current approaches can limit their potential impact. In settings where multiple campaigns occur, planning and implementation may be carried out with little communication or collaboration among stakeholders and with inadequate coordination with country health systems. This may result in inefficiencies and inequities that can strain health systems, burden health care workers, weaken health services and limit the potential impact of campaigns.
The Coalition
Until now, there has been no established forum to promote promising practices across the many and varied types of health campaigns. To address these gaps, The Task Force for Global Health has launched the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Coalition is a cross-campaign coalition that fosters learning and systems change. It brings together country leaders, donors, multilateral organizations, and NGOs from several large-scale health campaign domains, as well as specialists in health systems, ethics, and health economics.
The Coalition supports research that fosters the testing and replication of evidence-based campaign practices. It also develops guidelines and approaches so that campaigns can improve collaboration with the health systems of countries.
The Coalition welcomes your questions and inquiries. Please visit our contact page.
Learn more about how the Coalition was designed in this introductory video.
Vision & Impact
The Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition envisions country-led health systems using campaigns and ongoing services to achieve and sustain health-related development goals for all people.
The ultimate impact of the Coalition is that health system objectives are met through effective and equitable use of campaigns that are planned and delivered in conjunction with ongoing health services and that reach all populations targeted for the intervention(s).
Approach
The Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition works to improve collaboration between health campaigns and health systems through three strategies.
Create a forum for learning and coordination
Identify, test + replicate evidence-based practices
Advocate for policy alignment and collaboration
Program Office
The Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition’s program office is located at The Task Force for Global Health. The team guides the Coalition towards its strategic objectives by supporting management, coordination and communication, and facilitates implementation research and knowledge management collaboration with Coalition members.
Kristin Saarlas, ScD, MPH
Director
Kristin Saarlas serves as the Director where she provides strategic oversight and technical direction to the Coalition. Kris returned to The Task Force in December 2019 after 9 years with USAID working as a Sr. Evaluation Advisor based in Jerusalem, Washington D.C. and Ethiopia and as the East Africa Regional Advisor for the U.S. Peace Corps, also based in Ethiopia. From 1994-2007, Kris worked at The Task Force as the Deputy Director of the All Kids Count Program and Public Health Informatics Institute. Previously, she was at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention working on the Combating Childhood Communicable Diseases Program and began her public health career working on Guinea Worm eradication as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin. Kris holds a ScD in health systems management and MPH in international health from Tulane University and a BA in international relations from Michigan State University.
Eva Bazant, DrPH, MPH
Sr. Associate Director, Implementation Research
Eva Bazant works with the Coalition to develop and implement a learning and research agenda on campaign effectiveness and integration. Eva is an applied program evaluator and mixed-methods researcher with 20+ years of global health experience. Previously, at Jhpiego, she served as Research Team Lead and Sr. Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Advisor, collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams working in maternal and newborn health, reproductive health/family planning, HIV and cervical cancer prevention, care and service demand, gender and disability services, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. While at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region, Eva advised programs in sexual and reproductive health and rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds doctoral and masters of public health degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University, is fluent in French and Spanish, and has co-authored 40+ peer-reviewed articles and reports for international development agencies and sponsors.
Leah Denise Wyatt, MSc
Sr. Associate Coalition Director
Leah Denise Wyatt plans, facilitates, and leads strategic development for the Coalition, serving as a liaison to Coalition members and partners. Leah has over 18 years of experience in strategic learning and communication. Her work has focused on knowledge network design, collaboration, communication, and facilitating evidence-based dialogue and action planning. She comes to The Task Force after spending over five years with USAID serving as a Learning Advisor in Washington, DC and Kampala, Uganda. Previously, Leah led knowledge management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in service to a USAID-funded cooperative agreement. Leah holds a Master of Science degree in Information and Knowledge Strategy from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon.
Allison Snyder, MPH
Project Manager
Allison Snyder is the project manager for the Health Campaign Effectiveness program. In this role she provides support, management, and strategic planning and guidance for the program and the coalition. She joined the Coalition in 2020, after 4 years serving in a management and support role within The Task Force’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center, the secretariat for the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD). Allison has broad domestic and global health and development experience, including 3 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda, leading health education initiatives, providing program design and implementation support and leading project and portfolio management. Allison holds a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs from Florida State University and a Master of Public Health from Emory University.
Patricia Richmond, MPH
Project Support Specialist
Patricia Richmond returned to Task Force for Global Health in March 2021, having previously worked with the All Kids Count program and the Public Health Informatics Institute. From 1997 – 2004, Patricia worked with partners at state and local health departments across the United States, helping to develop quantitative indicators for evaluating immunization registries, and managing All Kids Count Connections, one of the first communities of practice around integration of child health information systems. Following several years of parenting, volunteering, and working in public schools, Patricia now supports the Health Campaign Effectiveness and the Focus Area on Compassion and Ethics (FACE) programs of the Task Force. She studied studied maternal and child health in Madurai, India as a participant in the South India Term Abroad (SITA) Program, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from William Smith College, and a Master of Public Health in Global Health from Emory University.
Aimee Rivera, MPH
Program Assistant
Aimee Rivera is the Program Assistant for the Health Campaign Effectiveness program. She joined the Task Force in 2022 and provides support to project coordination and office logistics. She has worked in the Human Engagement and Learning Platform as a Public Health Associate in developing a better understanding of vaccine hesitation across the nation. She has also worked in the field gathering information on the COVID-19 pandemic and also gathering information about possible hesitation in vaccine inoculation. She has worked as a Graduate Administrative Assistant in the Latinx Student Services and Outreach office during her graduate career, providing support to the Latinx community at Georgia State University by completing and succeeding in higher education. Aimee completed her Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology and a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry at Georgia State University.
Alan Hinman, MD, MPH
Consultant
Dr. Hinman received his B.A. from Cornell University, M.D. from Western Reserve University, and M.P.H. from Harvard University. Since 1965 he has been involved in public health programs at the state, national, and international levels, primarily working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC he served as Director of the Immunization Division (1977-1988) and the National Center for Prevention Services (1988-1995). In addition, he has worked for the State Health Departments of New York and Tennessee. Dr. Hinman retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in July 1996, having attained the rank of Assistant Surgeon General, and joined the staff of The Task Force for Global Health. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 publications. He has served on the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as Chairing a WHO Advisory Committee. He is an Adjunct Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.
Carol McPhillips-Tangum, MPH
Consultant
Carol McPhillips-Tangum, MPH is a Technical Advisor and Consultant for Health Campaign Effectiveness at The Task Force for Global Health in Georgia, United States. Carol has more than 20 years of experience in research and evaluation. She has led teams of health educators, health service researchers, and data analysts in the design, implementation and evaluation of health improvement and disease management programs for diverse populations. Ms. McPhilipps-Tangum received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association and the Public Health Leadership Society.
David Gittelman, MPH
Consultant
David Gittelman, MPH is a technical advisor both to the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition at the Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta, Georgia and to the Alliance for Malaria Prevention partnership hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies in Geneva. He also serves as adjunct faculty with the University at Albany, New York’s School of Public Health and advisor to its Center for Global Health. Previously, Mr. Gittelman was a public health advisor with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 32 years, and a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has worked extensively with immunization campaigns for polio and measles immunization in Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe, and mass distribution of insecticide-treated nets in Africa. Mr. Gittelman received his Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and Bachelors in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH
President & CEO, Task Force for Global Health
Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACMI became The Task Force’s fourth President and Chief Executive Officer in October 2022. A physician and public health professional for 37 years, Dr. O’Carroll has extensive experience working across numerous public health domains including global health, epidemiology and disease surveillance, injury control, tobacco use prevention, adolescent health, disaster response and emergency management, public health information system development, bioterrorism, and epidemic control.
Dr. O’Carroll joined the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1985 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and spent 18 years with CDC as an epidemiologist, informatician and program director. While at CDC, Dr. O’Carroll led the epidemiology research unit for the prevention of suicide and violence, and later developed and edited CDC’s textbook of Public Health Guidelines. Dr. O’Carroll was a pioneer in the field of public health informatics, having developed the nation’s first training course and first textbook on public health informatics. He also defined, developed and directed CDC’s national Health Alert Network, a critical component of the nation’s defense against bioterrorism.
Dr. O’Carroll later worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, first as Regional Health Administrator for HHS Region X (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington), and later as Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health for Science and Medicine. In this role, Dr. O’Carroll helped conceptualize and develop “Public Health 3.0,” an effort to systematize an enhanced level of public health practice that incorporates the social determinants of health. He retired from the US Public Health Service in 2016 as a two-star Rear Admiral.
Dr. O’Carroll joined The Task Force for Global Health in 2016 as a member of its executive team. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the health systems strengthening programs of The Task Force, including The Public Health Informatics Institute, TEPHINET, the MedSurplus Alliance, and the Health Campaign Effectiveness Program. He received both his MD and Master in Public Health degrees from Johns Hopkins University.