Modibo Haidara
I was born in West Africa, Mali to be specific. My family and I moved to the United States in 2001. I am pursuing a double degree in GIS and Community Health with a minor in Global Poverty. I’m interested in using a multidisciplinary approach to analyze public health problems. I am specifically interested in remote sensing as a tool to characterize water borne disease transmission risk. During my time at the University, I have had some unique experiences. I volunteered at the Children’s National Medical Center and am serving as a peer educator at UMD’s Health Center for the SHARE (Sexual Health and Reproductive Education) program. I interned at the Millennium Challenge Corporation where I served on a project to increase the access of open data in Africa as an incentive for businesses to invest in the Africa.
During the summer of 2014, I benefitted from the mentorship of GEOG's Dr. Matt Hansen through a research internship (Summer Research Initiative). I would say that was the most formative experience I’ve had at UMD and I encourage students in our department to reach out to faculty members.
For the spring 2015 semester, I will be interning with Dr. Molly Brown who just joined the department. She has provided me with an internship opportunity to fulfill my last academic requirement for graduation. I will be analyzing the metric used by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) to determine the prevalence of undernourishment, deconstruct the formula and reconstruct it using DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys) data. This is an excellent opportunity to work under the guidance of Dr. Brown whose expertise is my direct interest of study. Upon graduating, I plan on taking a year or two off to get work experience and prepare for graduate school. I am looking at schools of global health.
