Biographical sketch for Mary Anne Mercer, DrPH

Mary Anne Mercer is a practitioner with a doctoral degree in public health and over 30 years experience in implementing or supporting maternal and child health programs in developing countries. She spent two years leading a health team in rural Nepal in 1978-79 and then coordinated outpatient clinic services in a Cambodian refugee camp. She was a student and then faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health from 1980 to 1995. She has focused on improving the technical capacity of NGO health projects in developing countries since 1989 when she developed and directed a program at Johns Hopkins University to provide technical support for nine NGO projects for HIV/AIDS prevention in seven African countries. She later was deputy director of a similar program that supported USAID-funded child survival projects.

In 1995 Dr. Mercer began work with Health Alliance International in Seattle Washington, where she is now Deputy Director, and at the same time joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Public Health. When the Department of was founded in 2007 she joined that faculty as a Senior Lecturer, where she continues to advise students and teach. She provided technical support to HAI’s maternal/newborn care and HIV/AIDS prevention projects in Mozambique for several years. Since 1999 she has also been the Director of Timor-Leste Operations at HAI, where she oversees programs for maternal and newborn care and child spacing.

Dr. Mercer’s involvement in East Timor, now called Timor-Leste, began in early 1999. HAI supports the new Ministry of Health to strengthen its programs for maternal and newborn health, including child spacing. The program has developed expertise in providing supportive supervision and on the job training of midwives, and has developed innovative approaches and for working directly with communities to improve their home care practices and demand for services. The Timorese midwives who were responsible for most of the maternal and child hcare following the departure of Indonesia in 1999 had minimal training in a number of current standards, such as providing essential newborn care. HAI staff developed national curricula for newborn care for hospital-based nurses and midwives and for rural health center and health post staff. The training for Dili Hospital staff was completed, but civil unrest delayed the newborn care training for district health staff, which is only now being conducted. Another important effort to support newborn care in Timor-Leste included a qualitative study that investigated traditional beliefs surrounding childbearing and the care of neonates. That information inspired support for local production of a film that explores traditional practices related to maternal and newborn health and provides a set of messages designed to improve maternal and newborn home care and care-seeking. HAI also has produced focused modules from that film including one on immediate care for newborns and one on breastfeeding. Continuing efforts include exploring the involvement of community volunteers to conduct newborn care screening visits.

Education: Doctor of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University School of and Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Baltimore, Maryland, August 1987. Dissertation: Social Class Determinants of Child Growth in the Peruvian Sierra. Master of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, May 1981. Adult Nurse Practitioner, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, 1976.

Recent professional positions Senior Lecturer (2002-present), Departments of Global Health and/or Health Services, University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine. Participate in classroom teaching, student admissions, student academic and thesis advisement, curriculum development, and other academic activities. Deputy Director (1998-present), and Director of Timor-Leste Operations, Health Alliance International, Seattle Washington. Serve as acting Executive Director in his absence; oversee the development, management and evaluation of maternal/newborn care and child spacing projects in Timor-Leste; provide technical project development and support for maternal and newborn care, child survival, HIV prevention and other health projects; coordinate administration and other management functions at HAI headquarters; support ongoing research and operations research field projects. Research Associate (1989-1995) The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (equivalent to lecturer in the UW system). Served as academic advisor for MPH students, and co-advisor for one doctoral student; primary instructor for the course: Project Development for Primary Health Care in Developing Countries, 1983-1994. Deputy Director, PVO Child Survival Support Program, Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, May 1993-March 1995. For USAID-funded child survival (CS) grants program, managed technical reviews of proposals and detailed implementation plans; regional PVO/NGO networking; technical support related to HIV/AIDS and maternal care; and guidelines for project reporting. Organized a task force to provide guidelines for integrating HIV/AIDS activities into primary health care/CS projects. Director, HIV/AIDS Prevention in Africa (HAPA) Support Program, Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins University, March 1989-September 1993. Principal investigator for cooperative agreement with Africa Bureau of USAID to provide technical support to nine NGO projects for HIV/AIDS prevention in seven African countries. Managed $1.2 million budget and developed program for monitoring/technical support of grantees, including identifying needs and providing technical assistance (TA); facilitating communication among grantees; developing guidelines for project reporting; organizing and directing the HAPA technical advisory group (TAG); researching the use of traditional media for HIV/AIDS education in rural Cameroon; and analyzing the HAPA experience in to guide future efforts. Organized and supervised knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices survey regarding HIV/AIDS in rural Zimbabwe for Save the Children HAPA project, June 1991.

Selected refereed journal articles Mercer MA, Gates N, Holley M, Malunga L, and Arnold R. Rapid KABP Survey for Evaluation of NGO HIV/AIDS Prevention Projects. AIDS Education and Prevention 8(2), 143-154, 1996.

Newman R and Mercer MA. Consequences of Landmines. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2000 Jul-Sep;6(3):243-8.

Gloyd S, Chai S, and Mercer MA. Antenatal Syphilis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Missed Opportunities for Mortality Reduction. and Planning 2001; 16(1): 29-31.

Povey G, Mercer MA. East Timor in Transition: Health and Health Care. International Journal of Health Services 32(3):607-623, 2002.

Gloyd S, Suarez J, and Mercer MA. Immunization Campaigns and Political Agendas: Retrospectives from Ecuador and El Salvador. International Journal of Health Services 2003; 33(1), pp 113-128.

B. Mola OD, Mercer MA, Asghar RJ, Gimbel-Sherr KH, Gimbel-Sherr S, Micek MA, Gloyd SS (2006) Condom use after voluntary counseling and testing in Central Mozambique. Tropical Medicine and International Health. February, 11(2): 176–181.

Brentlinger PE, Chadreque Correia MA, Chinhacata FS, Gimbel-Sherr KH, Stubbs B, Mercer MA. Lessons learned from bednet distribution in Central Mozambique. Health Policy and Planning 2007; doi: 10.1093/heapol/czm002

Prevalence and Predictors of Maternal Peripheral Malaria Parasitemia in Central Mozambique. Paula E. Brentlinger, Pablo Montoya, Ana Judith Blanco Rojas, Maria Ana Chadreque Correia, Martinho Dgedge, Francisco Saúte, Kenneth Gimbel-Sherr, Mary Anne Mercer, and Stephen Gloyd. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 77(2), 2007, pp 228-234.

Paula Brentlinger, Martinho Dgedge, Maria Ana Chadreque Correia, Ana Judith Blanco Rojas, Francisco Saute, Kenneth Gimbel-Sherr, Benjamin Stubbs, Mary Anne Mercer, and Stephen Gloyd. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy in central Mozambique. Bull WHO November 2007, 85(11).

Hagopian A Spigner C, Gorstein J, Mercer MA, Pfeiffer J, Frey S, Benjamin L, Gloyd S. Developing competencies for a graduate school curriculum in international health. Public Health Reports, Vol 123: pp 408-414, May-June 2008.

Selected books and book chapters Taylor, CE and Mercer MA. "Causal Factors Influencing Childhood Malnutrition," and “The Place of Growth Promotion in Primary Health Care." In Growth Promotion for Child Development, Cervinskas NM, et al (eds.). IDRC, Ottowa, 1993.

Fort M, Mercer MA, and Gish O (eds). Sickness and Wealth: the Corporate Attack on Global Health, South End Press, Boston, 2004).

Bezruchka S and Mercer MA. “The Impact of Hierarchy and Economic Inequality on Health.” In Sickness and Wealth: the Corporate Attack on Global Health, Fort M, Mercer MA, and Gish O (eds). South End Press, Boston, 2004.

Mercer MA. “Shall we leave it to the experts?” Conclusion, in Sickness and Wealth: the Corporate Attack on Global Health, Fort M, Mercer MA, and Gish O (eds). South End Press, Boston, 2004.

Mercer MA. “Global Health Needs and Priorities in Developing Countries.” Chapter 87 in Current Issues in Nursing, Perle Cowen and Sue Moorhead (eds). Mosby: New York, 2009 Selected posters and presentations: The International Response to HIV/AIDS: What Can We Learn from NGOs? APHA Annual Meeting, November 9, 1992. The Contribution of Nongovernmental Organizations to HIV/AIDS Prevention in Africa. Annual Conference on African Policy Issues of the Institute on African Affairs, Washington, DC, February 25, 1993. Including HIV/AIDS Prevention in PVO Child Survival Projects. Poster at XI International Conference on AIDS, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, July 9, 1996. Globalization, Inequality and Health. APHA Annual Meeting, November 17, 1998 East Timor: the Dangers Ahead. APHA Annual Meeting, November 10, 1999. Using survey data to improve community-based HIV/AIDS programs. APHA Annual Meeting, October 23, 2001 (poster). Priorities and resources for in East Timor. APHA Annual Meeting, November, 2002 (poster) Maternal and Newborn Care in Post-conflict Timor-Leste. Presentation at Johns Hopkins University, Child Survival Mini-university, June 2005 Maternal and Newborn Care in Post-conflict Timor-Leste. On-line presentation for CORE group, March 2006 Challenges in Maternal and Newborn Care in a Post-Conflict Setting at APHA Annual meeting, Philadelphia, December 14, 2005 (poster) Imagining Life: Using film to improve the health of mothers and newborns in Timor-Leste. Oral presentation at APHA Annual Meeting, Washington DC, November 2007 Going Global: Integrating Country Realities into Student Learning about Public Health. Poster at UW 4th Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium, May 6, 2008. Increasing community demand for child spacing in Timor-Leste. Oral presentation at annual meeting of Global Health Council, May 27, 2008. Susan Thompson, Mary Anne Mercer The role of the academically-linked NGO in support of public sector health systems: the case of Timor-Leste. Panel presentation at the 12th Congress of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, Istanbul, Turkey May 1, 2009. Improving Maternal and Newborn Care in Timor-Leste: A partnership with the MOH. Oral presentation at APHA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 2009

Funding Director and principal investigator for $1.2 million HIV/AIDS Prevention in Africa (HAPA) Support Program, Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins University, 1989- 1993. Cooperative agreement with Africa Bureau of USAID to provide technical support to nine NGO projects for HIV/AIDS prevention in seven African countries.

Principal investigator with primary responsibility for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of $1.5 million HAI project “Improving Maternal and Newborn Care in Timor- Leste.” Funded as a Child Survival and Health grant by USAID, 2004-9.

Principal investigator with primary responsibility for $651,219 project for HAI project “Promoting Community Demand for Child Spacing in Timor-Leste.” Funded by Flexible Fund of USAID, 2005-2008 and $1.25 million supplemental grant from USAID mission in Timor- Leste, 2008-10.