Capacity BuildingLydia Kim is a candidate in medicine (MD) and public health (MPH) at the Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) in Boston. She came to CeSSIAM for both a clinical and research experience. She worked with a local neonatologist on deliveries and immediate newborn care at the provincial hospital, clinically, while setting up the infant and maternal anthropometry process for the Xela-Babies project, and translating the rotating menu for day-care center meal plans of the Secretariat of the Beneficent Works of the First Lady (SOSEP) into English prior to nutrient scoring. She was referred and co-supervised by Dr. Odilia Bermúdez, Associate Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at TUSM.
Ilse van Beusekom was a candidate for the Master’s degree in Nutrition and Infection in the Institute of Health and Care of the Vreije Universiteit (Free University) of Amsterdam (VU). She came as part of a contingent of four VU students of the same major under the co-supervision of Dr. Colleen Doak, Associate Professor of Nutrition in the Institute. She formed part of the anthropometry team for Xela-Babies, and classifying the early feeding patterns of infants into their 6th month of life as exclusively breast feed, predominantly breast fed or mixed fed according to the definitions of the World Health Organization.
Marieke Reurings was a second Masters candidate in the VU quartet, forming part of the anthropometry team and examining the determinant variables of extreme short stature (stunting) in the infants of the Xela-Babies Project.
Robine van der Starre was a third Masters candidate in the VU quartet, forming part of the anthropometry team and examining the role of the ritual fluids (aguitas) administered and the illness experience of the infants within the the Xela-Babies Project.
Leonie Peters was a final Masters candidate in the VU quartet, helping to coordinate the qualitative, key-informant anthropological investigations of practices and perceptions of early infant feeding, with a special emphasis on ritual fluid consumption.
Juliana Casimiro de Almeida is a Masters candidate in nutrition in the Center Institute for Nutrition and Food Research of the Technische Universitaet of Muenchen in Freising, Germany, co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Schuemann. Her project was to examine the validity for non-invasive measurement, by trans-cutaneous projection of white light, from two commercial devices (one from Germany and another from Israel), in adult subjects in rural areas and across a spectrum of hemoglobin values ranging from anemic to plethoric. The gold standard was whole blood, measured by a reference laboratory method.
Linda Oyesiku is an MPH candidate at the Boston University School of Public Health, referred to CeSSIAM by Prof Davidson Hamer of the Program in Global Health. She formed part of the anthropometry team and is examining both the body composition and body mass classification of the mothers of Xela-Babies in relationship to lactation duration and the association of excess body weight of the mother and linear growth faltering in the infants. She also participated in the cross-calibration of the two non-invasive devices for trans-cutaneous hemoglobin estimation and its validation against a whole blood standard.
Natasha Irving is a candidate in medicine (MD) and public health (MPH) at the TUSM who was referred by Dr. Bermudez. She formed part of the Xela-babies anthropometry team and analyzed the nature of the complementary foods and ritual fluids offered during the 1st through the 6th month of infant life
Janiece Alvey is a recent graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles in anthropology, referred by former CeSSIAM exchange student, Dr. Dena Herman. She forms part of the Xela-babies anthropometry team and is entering, coding and analyzing the data on nutrient intakes from the non-human milk foods and beverages offered through the first 6 months of life.
Oscar Padilla, MSc came to CeSSIAM at the conclusion of his Master of Science studies in neurobiology at the TUSM. He returned from Guatemala to Boston to perform a defense of his Master’s thesis. He forms part of the Xela-babies anthropometry team. He also works with Licda Rosario García on the analysis and interpretation of tape-recorded key informant interviews and focus-groups as part of the qualitative research component to determine cultural meaning and perceptions for decisions in early life feeding of infants and toddlers in Quetzaltenango.
Anne-Marie Chomat MD, MPH is a doctoral candidate in parasitology at the Institute of Pathology and School of Environmental Sciences of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, under the co-supervision of Associate Professor Marilyn E. Scott.
The student had done exchange studies while pursuing her MPH and board certification in infectious disease medicine, with three prior visits to Guatemala. Her dissertation protocol on the effects of maternal stress on morbidity, lactation and growth of infant offspring has been approved at her home institution. She undertook a 6-week period to refine and examine the feasibility of interview formats and questionnaire instruments and to determine the acceptability, handling and diagnostic utility of physical and laboratory variables in a pilot reconnaissance, prior to definitive field collections.
Hilary Wren MSc is a doctoral candidate in nutrition at the School of Nutrition and Dietetics of MacDonald College of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, under the co-supervision of Associate Professor Kristine Koski. She was primarily responsible for the lactation biology, nutritional status and dietary intake aspect of the pilot field project during the summer of 2011.
Joseé Methot is a Masters candidate in environmental studies at the School of Environmental Sciences of McGill. Dr. Scott serves on her thesis committee. Her project involved a description of environmental systems analysis of the interaction between two forms of agriculture – subsistence farming and horticultural crop cultivation for export (broccoli) – in small holding in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range in the Baja Verapaz.
Lauren Burgunder is an MPH candidate at the TUSM, working under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Janet Forrester. Her project, in the eastern region of Guatemala’s “dry corridor” in the El Progreso Province was to assess the sources of potable water and formats for human excreta disposal rural households of the region, and explore attitudes toward newer formats of water purification (solar UV exposure) and to ecologically geared waste disposal (urine diverting toilets).
