About
Dr. Lara Vaz is currently a Senior Program Director in International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau and serves as Technical Director for the USAID-funded MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator project. She has more than 25 years of experience with public health program planning, implementation, research, and monitoring and evaluation in the United States and globally, in content areas spanning HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and maternal, newborn, and child health and approaches including behavior change, health systems strengthening, policy, and measurement and data use. Her work experience spans nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, community-based organizations, and United Nations agencies, bringing together research, implementation, and policy. Dr. Vaz has served as Co-Investigator on NIH grants and successfully written and won research and implementation funding from a broad range of donors, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and other private donors. She has over 50 scientific publications, served as a special journal supplement co-editor, and has a long track record of presentations at national and international conferences and mentoring and supervising students, junior faculty, and staff. She currently sits on several international working groups and advisory groups focusing on improving health measurement and data use. She has guest lectured in undergraduate and graduate-level courses across multiple academic institutions in the US and Mozambique. Dr. Vaz has worked in over 15 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; she is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French and has working knowledge of Kiswahili. Her professional service activities include fundraising and event organizing for nonprofits, peer review of academic journal manuscripts, organizational committees, and alumna mentor. Dr. Vaz holds a Ph.D. in health behavior and health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in science in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health, now known as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; from 2016-2019 she served as a Research Associate at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Full details of her career achievements can be found in her curriculum vitae.
