Kristin Andrejko

I am committed to advancing vaccine policy by establishing a career as an infectious disease epidemiologist with expertise in pediatric infectious disease dynamics. As an undergraduate, I studied the biological mechanisms of infectious disease, models of sustainable international development, and the social determinants of health. I became interested in infectious disease and global health after volunteering with a South African NGO, One Sun Health, as a community-based malaria education program coordinator. In this role, I helped implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a community education campaign for malaria elimination in partnership with local community health workers and the provincial Department of Health. Working on malaria control piqued my interest in studying the process of malaria vaccine development, and led me to an internship at the World Health Organization (WHO) in the immunization, vaccines and biologics division where I assisted with a systematic review to update global Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) policy. My work at WHO culminated in a first author report that enumerated the policy-relevant evidence gaps for epidemiologists to prioritize while developing future research studies. While at WHO, I noticed the paucity of data addressing key policy questions around PCV policy and became interested in studying epidemiology to design studies that address critical policy-relevant evidence gaps. I subsequently interned at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria to deepen my understanding of epidemiologic methods, serving as the primary author of a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the safety of anti-malarial drugs during pregnancy. Cumulatively, these experiences reinforced my desire to pursue graduate training in epidemiology and pediatric infectious diseases. To date, I have established a solid foundation in quantitative and analytical skills in epidemiological study design, impact evaluation, statistical analysis of hierarchical, time series, and longitudinal data, and causal inference methodologies through my graduate training at UC Berkeley. My ongoing doctoral research will quantify the impact of various vaccines against antimicrobial consumption and resistance. I will apply cutting edge causal inference methodologies to explicitly quantify the extent to which recent reductions in antimicrobial prescribing are attributable to Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccination and predict the health and economic impact of future vaccination programs on antimicrobial consumption.