About Us
While our team has been at work in improving global child health for decades, our program has only formalized in recent years. We are excited to see it grow and strengthen in the future to equip more researchers, clinicians, and program managers in the field of global child health.
Our Team
Bonnie Maldonado
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity, Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases), and Health Research and Policy
Dr. Maldonado is a pediatrician and infectious disease expert. Dr. Maldonado’s research activities have included the epidemiology and prevention of viral infections such as rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio and pediatric HIV infection. In 1989, Dr. Maldonado received the Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni Award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she was inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame at Stanford University in 2001. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Public Health Association. Her work has received funding from the NIH, CDC, WHO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the State of California.
Gary Darmstadt
Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, and Professor of Neonatal and Developmental Pediatrics
Previously Dr. Darmstadt was Senior Fellow in the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), where he led a cross-foundation initiative on Women, Girls and Gender, assessing how addressing gender inequalities and empowering women and girls leads to improved gender equality as well as improved health and development outcomes. Prior to this role, he served as BMGF Director of Family Health, leading strategy development and implementation across nutrition, family planning and maternal, newborn and child health.
A. Desiree Labeaud
Associate Dean of Global Health, Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease)
Since the early 2000s, Dr. LaBeaud has devoted her efforts to better understanding the risk factors and long-term health consequences of arboviral infections, including Rift Valley fever, chikungunya, and dengue viruses. She received her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and masters degree in Clinical Research from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Labeaud completed her pediatric residency and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. She is also the co-founder, with long-term Kenyan collaborators Drs. Bryson Ndenge and Francis Mutuku, of the NGO, Health + Environmental Research Institute.
Clea Sarnquist
Clinical Professor, Pediatrics (Infectious Disease)
Dr. Clea Sarnquist holds a DrPH and an MPH from UC Berkeley. She co-directs the Peds Residency Global Health Scholarly Concentration. Her research interests include program evaluation, infectious disease prevention, and program management. She has developed and implemented research as varied as behavioral and clinical characteristics of HIV-infected adults in California, gender-based violence prevention in Kenyan adolescents, and measles vaccination in Mexico.
Rasika Behl
Program Manager
Rasika received her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from UC Berkeley and has experience working in India and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to coming to Stanford, she was involved in a variety of projects within the Global Health Group at UCSF, including global health metrics development for social franchise organizations, analysis of national data, program coordination, and research projects aimed at understanding factors that influence quality of care for family planning services in India and Kenya. Before that, she was a core manager of the monitoring and evaluation team for three telemedicine projects in rural Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, focused specifically on childhood disease and women’s health services. She is the Program Officer for the Scholarly Concentration Program in the Peds Residency. Rasika can be contacted with questions regarding the scholarly concentrations or about ongoing research projects.
Jenny Kang
Program Manager
Jenny received her MPH from University of Washington and has worked in China, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Eastern Africa with UNICEF (micronutrient malnutrition), I-TECH (HIV training for health workers), and World Vision (orphans and vulnerable children). She can be contacted with questions regarding the Pediatric Global Health scholarly concentration for residents and the Global Child Health Travel Scholarship program.
Clea Sarnquist, DrPH, conducting field research in Nairobi, Kenya. (photo by Nichole Sobecki, courtesy of Stanford Medicine Magazine)