Violet has over 10 years’ experience in research and knowledge translation in Kenya and the United States. Violet has been employed at AFIDEP since 2011, most recently in the role of senior research/knowledge translation officer. Key projects she worked on during this time include: leading monitoring and evaluation activities for a DFID-funded capacity building programme focused on reducing bottlenecks in use of research evidence and data in Kenya’s Ministry of Health and Parliament; and managing a Norad-funded programme aimed at promoting the use of research evidence and data by policymakers focusing on adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
She also has experience managing a range of policy and programme environment assessments on various health and development issues of importance in Africa mainly focusing on reproductive health and education. Violet has a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology, Florida International University, USA and Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, University of Newcastle, Australia.
Violet registered with LSTM in October 2016 as an ‘off-site’ PhD student working on CCR’s ‘DELTAS Learning Research Programme’. Violet’s PhD project is titled: “Exploring the research uptake strategies being used by African researchers to promote evidence-informed decision making”. She is supervised by Prof. Imelda Bates (LSTM), Dr Justin Pulford (LSTM) and Dr Rose Oronje (AFIDEP) and will be based at the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), Nairobi, Kenya for the duration of her PhD.