Lara Vaz

Lara Vaz, SM, PhD is Senior Program Director for International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau. January 2013 worked as Senior Advisor, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning for the Department of Global Health at Save the Children, US. She is a public health behavioral scientist with over 20 years of experience in public health programming, monitoring and evaluation, and implementation research in resource-limited settings. Lara currently serves as the Deputy Director for the USAID-funded MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator, providing technical guidance for cross-cutting monitoring, evaluation and learning, knowledge management, and strategic communication for MNCH/FP/RH supported activities across the MOMENTUM portfolio. She is currently engaged in maternal and newborn health global policy and indicator development with WHO and other key partners. Prior to 2020, Dr. Vaz led measurement efforts for the Saving Newborn Lives project at Save the Children US and provided research and monitoring support to other projects supporting MNCH in low- and middle-income countries. Programmatic areas of experience include maternal and newborn health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and social and behavior change communication. Her technical areas of expertise include data use, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation design, qualitative and quantitative data collection methods (including routine information systems), instrument development, data analysis, interpretation and translation for diverse audiences. Fluent in four languages, Lara has a Masters in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD in Health Behavior & Health Education from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.