Mischka Garel, MPH

Mischka Garel is the Director of Programs for the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) where she oversees all student and faculty programs and sets the vision and implementation strategy for current and future programming.  Mischka is responsible for the overall programmatic management, planning, execution, performance, and ongoing success of EGHI academic programs.

Prior to her current post, she served as the Senior Director for Site Strategy & Implementation for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Program Office at EGHI. In this capacity, she was responsible for planning and management of CHAMPS site performance improvement and implementation functions in addition to initiatives aimed at removing barriers to achieving equitable public health practice. The primary goal of the program is to characterize definitive causes of child death and stillbirths through surveillance, post-mortem specimen collection, and innovative laboratory diagnostics in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Mali, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria.

Mischka brings over 20 years’ experience working in maternal and child health (MCH) research, advocacy, program development and academic administration. She has worked on multiple initiatives involving health systems strengthening, capacity building, and community engagement to improve health outcomes for children and families.

Prior to joining EGHI, Mischka co-directed the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative at UCLA’s Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, managing overall strategic objectives. She simultaneously served as Assistant Director of the UCLA Center for Child and Family Health Leadership Training program, providing interdisciplinary training in MCH research and policy.

Before her time at UCLA, Mischka worked for the Pan American Development Foundation, the Johns Hopkins University Maryland National Children’s Study Center, and the Communities IMPACT Diabetes Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine managing research, program operations, training, and partnerships across multi-site networks. She has managed a portfolio of public-private partnership health initiatives in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, and led multi-sector community-based initiatives for driving systems level change in East Harlem. Her range of domestic and international MCH experience has equipped her to work closely with country sites to improve performance and build centers of excellence that promote local ownership of research activities.

Mischka holds a Master of Public Health, with a Maternal and Child Health concentration, from the University of South Florida. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Anthropology at the University of Florida, where she later served as the Associate Director of Public Health Programs, following her graduate studies.