2008.06.05: June 5, 2008: Headlines: COS - Namibia: Mathematics: AIDS: Harvard University Gazette: Namibia RPCV Bethany Hedt takes aim at AIDS with statistics

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Namibia: Peace Corps Namibia : Peace Corps Namibia: Newest Stories: 2008.06.05: June 5, 2008: Headlines: COS - Namibia: Mathematics: AIDS: Harvard University Gazette: Namibia RPCV Bethany Hedt takes aim at AIDS with statistics

By Admin1 (admin) (70.250.245.178) on Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 11:54 pm: Edit Post

Namibia RPCV Bethany Hedt takes aim at AIDS with statistics

Namibia RPCV Bethany Hedt takes aim at AIDS with statistics

Hedt returned from the Peace Corps in 2001, and when she realized she wouldn’t start at Harvard until the fall of 2003, she volunteered to return to Namibia in a shorter-term commitment as a Peace Corps Crisis Corps volunteer. During that year, she worked to develop an HIV/AIDS curriculum for the nation’s teachers and worked on AIDS education programs in schools. She returned to the United States just weeks before starting her studies at Harvard. While at Harvard, Hedt’s research has focused on new methodologies useful in disease detection and analysis, as well as on more applied subjects, such as HIV’s impact on Malawi’s police and education sectors. Hedt, who plans to continue her work next year as a postdoctoral fellow, said she’s been impressed with the Harvard School of Public Health, whose student population is enormously diverse, with people from many nations and backgrounds ranging from medical doctors to policy experts to people interested in quantitative science. “The work here has made me realize the complexity of the troubles we face and the role quantitative science plays in these puzzles,” Hedt said. “The exciting thing about being here is [that] there is never a lack of things to work on.”

Namibia RPCV Bethany Hedt takes aim at AIDS with statistics

HSPH student takes aim at AIDS with statistics

By Alvin Powell

Harvard News Office

Caption: Just back from working for two years as a math teacher in Namibia for the Peace Corps, Bethany Hedt turned right around and returned to the African nation to help develop an HIV/AIDS curriculum for the nation’s teachers. Staff photo Justin Ide/Harvard News Office

Bethany Hedt has always been in love with numbers. Her challenge has been finding a way to feed that love while fulfilling an equally strong drive to help the people around her.

With biostatistics, Hedt feels she’s found a way.

Hedt, who is graduating from the Harvard School of Public Health with a doctorate in biostatistics, has used statistics in critical settings around the world. She took a break from her studies last year to work with the government of Malawi on that nation’s AIDS crisis. She spent the summer of 2004 working with the World Bank as an intern and consultant, crunching HIV-related numbers for programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.

“I believe that having better information will improve health policy, and improving health policy will improve health care delivery,” Hedt said.

A former Peace Corps volunteer and graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), Hedt has loved numbers as long as she can remember. She graduated from UNC in 1999 with a bachelor of science degree in math, but said she was disappointed at the jobs available for math majors. The daughter of an advocate for long-term care residents and a Lutheran minister, Hedt had toured South Africa for three months during her undergraduate years, falling in love with both travel and Africa.

With college over, she applied to the U.S. Peace Corps and was thrilled when she got a posting as a math teacher in a small town in Namibia.

“It seemed like a perfect fit: Teach math, service to the community, and I get to travel. I considered it a win-win-win,” Hedt said.

Hedt spent two years living with a local family who embraced her and helped her adjust to life in the African nation. As her school’s first math teacher in five years, she had a lot of remedial teaching to do, and it would be years before test results reflected the benefit of her back-to-basics approach.

Hedt credits a professor at UNC for suggesting biostatistics as a good way for her to work on social justice issues. In order to have the greatest impact, however, Hedt said she felt she needed a graduate degree. So she applied to the Harvard School of Public Health.

“I’ve never been unhappy being a math major. The truth is, I’m a little bit of a nerd at heart. I love it,” Hedt said. “With math and statistics, there aren’t already paths laid out to put your skills to work in social justice. But without a lot of forged paths, the possibility of making an impact is enormous. There is a real opportunity to make a difference in public health.”

Hedt returned from the Peace Corps in 2001, and when she realized she wouldn’t start at Harvard until the fall of 2003, she volunteered to return to Namibia in a shorter-term commitment as a Peace Corps Crisis Corps volunteer. During that year, she worked to develop an HIV/AIDS curriculum for the nation’s teachers and worked on AIDS education programs in schools. She returned to the United States just weeks before starting her studies at Harvard.

While at Harvard, Hedt’s research has focused on new methodologies useful in disease detection and analysis, as well as on more applied subjects, such as HIV’s impact on Malawi’s police and education sectors.

Hedt, who plans to continue her work next year as a postdoctoral fellow, said she’s been impressed with the Harvard School of Public Health, whose student population is enormously diverse, with people from many nations and backgrounds ranging from medical doctors to policy experts to people interested in quantitative science.

“The work here has made me realize the complexity of the troubles we face and the role quantitative science plays in these puzzles,” Hedt said. “The exciting thing about being here is [that] there is never a lack of things to work on.”




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: June, 2008; Peace Corps Namibia; Directory of Namibia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Namibia RPCVs; Mathematics; AIDS





When this story was posted in July 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Contact PCOLBulletin BoardRegisterSearch PCOLWhat's New?

Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed
Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act Date: October 27 2007 No: 1206 Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act
Senator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them."

Peace Corps News Peace Corps Library Peace corps History RPCV Directory Sign Up

May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 2 2008 No: 1242 May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Condoleezza Rice Visits PC Headquarters 28 Apr
Bush hosts PCVs at White House 29 Apr
George Derrick is Oklahoma's first PCV 27 Apr
Debate is Brewing over Older Volunteers 25 Apr
Peter Spiro Scaled Corporate Ladder at Microsoft 24 Apr
Ukraine PCV terminated after testing HIV positive 22 Apr
Strauss writes: PC never lived up to purpose or principles 22 Apr
Atlantic Publishing needs your help on PC book 21 Apr
Nicole Nakama follows in footsteps of Father as PCV 21 Apr
Jerry LaPre writes: The Children of Sierra Leone 21 Apr
Robert Blackwill quits lobbying firm 19 Apr
An Interview with Christopher R. Hill 18 Apr
Harris Wofford introduces Obama's Speech on Race 18 Apr
Matthews could Challenge Arlen Specter for Senate 16 Apr
Lee Myung-bak invites 1500 RPCVs back to Korea 15 Apr
Peace Corps looks forward to returning to Kenya 11 Apr
Kathleen Stephens Quizzed by Congress 11 Apr
Campbell murder trial ends; Verdict set for June 30 9 Apr
Dodd Calls for New Strategic Partnership in Americas 9 Apr
Jake Hooker wins Pulitzer Prize for "A Toxic Pipeline" 9 Apr
Sirleaf welcomes return of PCVs to Liberia 8 Apr

New: More Stories from March and April 2008

March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 1 2008 No: 1238 March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
John Nichols writes: Tom Petri Challenges Abusive Secrecy 15 Mar
Timothy Shriver writes Baseball and 'Sarge' 31 Mar
Barry Kitterman writes "Baker's Boy" 30 Mar
Nathaniel Spiller writes: Friendship Thrives in Senegal 30 Mar
Garamendi Addresses California Democratic Convention 29 Mar
Melinda Palma lunches with Bush in Ghana 28 Mar
Peace Corps Director Tschetter leads by example 28 Mar
Bush presents Service Award to Lydia Humenycky 27 Mar
Suspension of Kenya Program under review 23 Mar
Patricia 'Pan' Godchaux rejoins PC after 40 years 23 Mar
James Rupert writes: Parliament to Rein In Musharraf 23 Mar
Embassies pay for devalued dollar 22 Mar
Sargent Shriver at Fund Raiser for Best Buddies 21 Mar
Terry Thomas strongly opposed to war in Iraq 19 Mar
Tony D’Souza's new book is "The Konkans" 18 Mar
Larry Kaplow writes: US taking notice of ordinary Iraqis 17 Mar
Bruce Cumings says North Korea tough to invade 12 Mar
PCVs Participate in ‘Walk the Nation’ in Swaziland 10 Mar
Theroux says India as hospitable as ever 8 Mar
Tony Hall talks about hunger in Bonita 6 Mar
Hill says relations with North Korea possible 4 Mar

New: More Stories from February and March 2008

What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia? Date: February 10 2008 No: 1227 What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia?
Last summer Peace Corps Inspector General David Kotz cited the lack of cooperation from the US embassy in Bolivia in the search for missing Peace Corps Volunteer Walter Poirier III. Now a member of the US Embassy Staff in Bolivia is accused of asking Peace Corps Volunteers "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country. Could US Ambassador Philip S.Goldberg please explain what is going on at the embassy that he has been running in La Paz since 2006?



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Harvard University Gazette

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Namibia; Mathematics; AIDS

PCOL41457
94


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: