Leigh Tally: Helping local governments in Africa use data better
May 27, 2016
Leigh Tally (right) reviews information with staff members at Murara Health Center, in Rwanda. (Photo by Sara Forhan)
Leigh Tally, MPH, has a record of public health service that spans the globe.
As a graduate student, she served as a consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services in Raleigh, N.C., and volunteered as a malaria program specialist with the Peace Corps in Kisumu, Kenya.
These days, the 2014 alumna of the Gillings School’s maternal and child health department works full time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. As a member of a monitoring and evaluation team in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, Tally spends nearly half her time in sub-Saharan Africa.
There, she supports the CDC’s country teams and local governments in strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems. With Tally’s help, the organizations can make more informed decisions by improving the application of data they collect.
“It’s not strategic information unless you are using it,” she notes.
“Not surprisingly, I am learning a lot in this role and really enjoying the challenge,” Tally says. “My experiences at the Gillings School inform my work on a daily basis. The School was great because I was surrounded by people who care about each other and the world around them.”
This story originally was published in the Spring 2016 edition of Carolina Public Health Magazine.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu
