Kirsten Duda

Research Assistant

Kirsten completed her BA from Colby College in the U.S. with a major in Biology and minor in Russian. Prior to completing her undergraduate education, Kirsten was heavily involved in coordinating and implementing a small-scale grassroots LLIN distribution project. After a brief period of time working as a grants assistant in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Harvard University, Kirsten moved to Liverpool to pursue a MSc in the Biology and Control of Parasites and Disease Vectors at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where she completed her masters project on using LQAS as a tool in malaria prevalence surveys in Uganda. Upon completion of her masters, Kirsten worked in the Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Department within the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) at the University of Oxford where she contributed to the mapping projects on a range of tropical infectious diseases and disease vectors. Subsequently, Kirsten began a position as research assistant within the Coleman Group at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM).

Kirsten’s current work within the Coleman group is focussed on the implementation and evaluation of tools to facilitate capacity building in country level malaria control and elimination programmes. Kirsten works within the ETCH unit to develop and evaluate serious games as training tools within vector control. Additionally, she works with the DDMS+, the Disease Data Management System to support capacity building within malaria control programmes; configuring systems, conducting trainings, and liaising with partners to facilitate system use and uptake.

Kirsten’s primary interest is in the development and implementation of capacity strengthening activities, primarily as they pertain to education and innovative tools and systems.

Selected publications

  • Pigott, D.M., Bhatt, S., Golding, N., Duda, K.A, Battle, K.E., Brady, O.J., Messina, J.P., Balard, Y., Bastien, P., Pratlong, F., Brownstein, J.S., Freifeld, C.C., Mekaru. S.R., Gething, P.W., George, D.B., Myers, M.F., Reithinger, R. and Hay, S.I. (2014). Global distribution maps of the Leishmaniases. eLife, 3 : e02851

    Kraemer, M.U.G., Sinka, M.E., Duda, K.A., Mylne, A., Shearer, F.M., Barker, C.M., Moore, C.G., Carvalho, R.G., Coelho, G.E., van Boertel, W., Hendrickx, G., Schaffner, F., Elyazar, I.R.F., Teng, H.-J., Brady, O.J., Messina, J.P., Pigott, D.M., Scott, T.W., Smith, D.L., Wint, G.R.W., Golding, N. and Hay, S.I. (2015). The global distribution of the arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. eLife, 4 : e08347

    Mylne, A.Q.N., Pigott, D.M., Longbottom, J., Shearer, F., Duda, K.A., Messina, J.P., Weiss, D.J., Moyes, C.L., Golding, N. and Hay S.I. (2015). Mapping the zoonotic niche of Lassa fever in Africa. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,109 (8) : 483-492

    Battle, K.E., Cameron, E., Guerra, C.A., Golding, N., Duda, K.A., Howes, R.E., Elyazar, I.R.F., Price, R.N., Baird, J.K., Reiner, R.C. Jr., Smith, D.L., Gething, P.W. and Hay, S.I. (2015). Defining the relationship between Plasmodium vivax parasite rate and clinical disease. Malaria Journal, 14 : 191

    Moyes C.L., Henry, A.J., Golding, N., Huang, Z., Singh, B., Baird, J.K., Newton, P.N, Huffman, M., Duda, K.A, Drakeley, C.J., Elyazar, I.R.F., Anstey, N.M., Chen, Q., Zommers, Z., Bhatt, S., Gething, P.W. and Hay, S.I. (2014). Defining the geographic range of Plasmodium knowlesi reservoir. Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases, 8 (3) : e2780