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  • Research
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  • China
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About

Diana Rickard, MD, MSHS

Email: drick001@gmail.com

Dr. Rickard is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at UCLA. She completed her residency in Pediatrics in the Community Health and Advocacy Track at UCLA Medical Center, and her NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) fellowship in Health Services Research in the Department of Pediatrics at UCLA in 2011. She founded a nongovernmental organization in rural Ghana in 2001 and has directed the organization, the Ghana Health and Education Initiative (GHEI), since that time. She has overseen community needs assessment, participatory planning and the evolution of health interventions in nutrition, hygiene, HIV/AIDS, malaria and reproductive health with an emphasis on community ownership and empowerment. She has given numerous workshops on leadership and strategic planning for the International Federation of Medical Student Associations at international conferences, as well as for GHEI's Ghana-based team.

As Executive Director of GHEI, she has also led a support team based in the U.S. on all aspects of nonprofit management including fundraising, financial management, publicity, communication with the Ghana-based team and recruitment and preparation of consultants, coordinators and volunteers. She has worked with more than ninety undergraduate, graduate and medical students on projects in health promotion with a focus on program planning with humility and respect for community knowledge and assets. She also co-created a GHEI sponsored rotation in Ghana for UCLA pediatric residents with a novel approach incorporating public health research, community asset mapping and ethical rural health care practice in 2007. This innovative rotation continues to host residents annually. In 2011, she worked with the UCLA Program in Global Health to create a summer research elective opportunity with GHEI in rural Ghana for first year UCLA medical students. Her research interests include malaria prevention and participatory program evaluation.