Collaboration with the University of California San Diego – School of Medicine
The Research collaboration between AMBSO and the University of California San Diego was established in 2018 with the help of Jennifer Wagman PhD, MHS who was an Assistant Professor at the UCSD School of Medicine. Dr. Wagman has since moved on to the University of California Los Angeles but the research collaboration was maintained by Amanda Miller, MS, who was key in establishing and maintaining the partnership at the time of inception till now.
The collaboration since yielded the following fruits among others;
- Research capacity building at AMBSO specifically with the young investigators through mentorship, virtual scientific writing sessions and ongoing support to improve the implementation of AMBSO protocol.
- Opportunities for Doctoral and Masters Students at UCSD to use AMBSO data on request for training purposes and also final Thesis and Dissertation.
- Collaboration on analysis of different sets of AMBSO data for purposes of writing abstracts/scientific papers, some of which have already been presented at National and International Conferences, and manuscripts developed to be submitted for publication.
- Enriched AMBSO Research protocols, especially the PHS with modules on Mental Health and Depression.
Our People at UCSD
Amanda Miller, MS,
Collaboration Lead at The University of California San Diego School of Medicine
Ms. Miller is a PhD Candidate in the UCSD-SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health (Global Health track) and has been working in the field of Global Health since completion of her masters in Global Health Sciences from UCSF in 2011.
Her research experience has primarily focused on understanding the intersection of HIV, substance use, intimate partner violence and related co-morbidities (e.g. mental health disorders) in sub-Saharan Africa. Her dissertation work, which is currently being funded by an NRSA F31 Pre-doctoral award from NIAAA, looks at the effects of experiences of intimate partner violence and alcohol use on engagement and retention in the HIV care continuum in Rakai, Uganda. She is also increasingly interested in understanding the burden of mental health in Uganda. Specifically, she is interested in understanding how it is perceived by community members, obtaining accurate estimates of the prevalence and burden of specific mental health disorders in this setting and exploring how mental health intersects with other important public health issues. Amanda was key in establishing the Research collaboration with AMBSO and is currently the main collaborating researcher at Africa Medical and Behavioral Sciences Organization with a UCSD affiliation.
