Alison El Ayadi, ScD

Assistant Research Scientist

Biosketch:

Dr. El Ayadi is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Safe Motherhood Program at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.  Her research interests include determinants of maternal mortality and morbidities, access to obstetric care, and the structural, social and interpersonal factors that configure maternal health disparities.  She completed her Doctor of Science degree in Social Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, where her dissertation research  focused on evaluating the comparability of two maternal mortality estimation methods, and assessing the overlap between individual, household, and contextual social determinants of maternal mortality and of seeking medical treatment in the event of an obstetric complication.  At the Bixby Center, her main research foci are obstetric hemorrhage and obstetric fistula.  Dr. El Ayadi has been involved as a primary analyst on the recently completed cluster randomized trial of the effectiveness of the non-pneumatic anti-shock garment (NASG) on obstetric hemorrhage outcomes in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and has conducted analyses among the previous quasi-experimental trials conducted at the tertiary care facility level in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt and India. She is working to develop a research program to further the evidence base around prevention, treatment and post-surgical reintegration strategies for obstetric fistula, and is the Project Director for a mixed-methods study evaluating family and community reintegration among women who have received surgical treatment for obstetric fistula in Uganda.  Dr. El Ayadi completed her MPH in International Health and Development at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and her BA in Anthropology and International Studies from Colby College.

Updated January 2014