MPH 2001

Yelena Amirkhanyan (AUA MPH 2001), Team Leader of GFATM NGO Primary Recipient Program Implementation Unit, Mission East Armenia

Yelena Amirkhanyan, MD, MPH, is heading the GFATM NGO Primary Recipient (NGO PR) Program Implementation Unit at Mission East Armenia. Mission East is an international humanitarian organization and it has been engaged in relief and development activities in Armenia for more than 20 years. In 2008, Mission East Armenia was selected as NGO PR for GFATM funded “Support to the National program on the Response to HIV Epidemic in the Republic of Armenia” program. The program is implemented through 11 sub-recipient organizations working with most-at-risk populations and people living with HIV. In 1996 Dr. Amirkhanyan graduated from Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU), in 1999 completed residency in Neurology at the National Institute of Health. In 2001 she earned MPH Degree from AUA School of Public Health.  Starting 2002, Dr. Amirkhanyan joined the AUA MPH program as Teaching Associate, then MPH Program Coordinator.  In 2000-2010, she worked at AUA Center for Health Services Research and Development as Research Assistant, then Program Manager/Technical Consultant, then Monitoring and Evaluation Director. After being employed for about ten years at AUA, in 2010-2011 Dr. Amirkhanyan joined the Ministry of Health of Armenia as Coordinator of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) Program Coordination Team. In 2007-2010, she also worked at the Department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Management of YSMU as a lecturer. Throughout her career, Dr. Amirkhanyan was involved in implementation of major health care reform projects in Armenia. She presented her work in international meetings and conferences.

Lusine Aydinyan (AUA MPH 2001), Health Insurance Consultant, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Geneva, Switzerland

Since 2012, Dr. Lusine Aydinyan has been Health Insurance Consultant at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. She provides guidance and professional expertise to UNHCR country offices in Iran, Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Rwanda, Nepal and Jordan in design and implementation of health insurance projects for the population of concern to UNHCR (refugees and asylum seekers). She also reviews existing medical assistance schemes as well as conducts need and feasibility assessment for the health insurance project. Dr. Aydinyan is also Health Financing Specialist focusing on sustainable financing of HIV response in Europe and Central Asia. She did assessment of sustainable financing options for the National HIV Responses in the Republic of Belarus and currently assists Belarus and Republic of Kazakhstan in conducting economic assessment of HIV programs, analyzing and projecting HIV epidemics, and calculating optimal allocations of resources to meet strategic objectives. In 2011-2012, she was Senior Public Health Officer at the UNHCR in Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) coordinating and providing technical oversight of life-saving and life-improving Health and Nutrition Programs for more than 1,000,000 Afghan and Iraqi Refugees in IRI. Dr. Aydinyan estimated catastrophic health expenditures of refugee families in the country and provided professional guidance in design and implementation of the largest Health Insurance Project for Refugees. In 2006-2010, Dr. Aydinyan was the Health Care Finance Team Leader of the USAID supported Primary Health Care Reform Project. Before that she worked at the World Bank supported Health Projects Implementation Unit as Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of Health Finance and Primary Health Care Development Project, then Health Finance Development Program Manager, and Coordinator of the Project “Strengthen Government Capacities to Develop and Monitor Effective Health Sector Policies”. In 1993, she graduated from Yerevan State Medical University. In 2001, she earned MPH degree from AUA School of Public Health. In 2006, she completed courses at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government on Leadership.

Astghik Grigoryan (AUA MPH 2001), Project Management Specialist, Democracy, Health, and Social Reform Office/Health, USAID/Armenia

Dr. Astghik Grigoryan has nine years of experience in managing projects under the health and social portfolio, including projects in the sphere of maternal, child, and reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, health system strengthening, tuberculosis, and domestic violence as the Project Management Specialist at USAID/Armenia. Her specific responsibilities include program planning, monitoring, and reporting; technical and administrative oversight of projects;  participation in program and strategy designs; preparation of memoranda and briefing papers; communication with implementing partners, host country officials, donors, and other stakeholders to present USAID health strategy and program, as well as identify needs and negotiate areas of USAID’s assistance. Before joining USAID, for eleven years, Dr. Grigoryan worked in first aid training, community health education, and design and management of projects in the areas of humanitarian assistance and health service strengthening. She earned her Medical Doctor degree in Pediatrics from Yerevan State Medical University and Master of Public Health from the AUA School of Public Health (previously College of Health Sciences). She was the recipient of Vartkess M. Balian Merit Award in 2001, which recognizes the best overall performance of first year graduate students at AUA.

Ovsanna Najaryan (AUA MPH 2001), Senior Health Services Planner, Primary Health Care Division, Alberta Health Services, Canada

Ovsanna Najaryan, MD, MPH, is a Senior Health Services Planner in the Primary Health Care Division of Alberta Health Services (AHS), Canada. In this capacity, she provides strategic planning, system design, business case development, change management and systematic evaluation of Community and Rural, Primary Care and Chronic Disease Management Division programs and services in Alberta. She provides strategic advice and counsel on the development, implementation and evaluation of provincial, strategic and integrated services policies, procedures, priorities and standards. Dr. Najaryan earned her Medical Doctor degree from Yerevan State Medical University in 1998 and completed a three-year residency program in Nephrology in 2001. She earned her MPH degree from AUA School of Public Health in 2001. She has more than 12 years of program management and health care administration experience leading number of internationally funded large scale national programs in different international organisations (Medicines Sans Frontiers – Belgium; Oxfam Great Britain; Management Sciences for Health – USA; The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria – Switzerland). Her health care administration career started at the Center for Health Services Research and Development at the American University of Armenia where she was responsible for management and implementation of Lions Clubs International Foundation funded blindness prevention program in Gegharkunik province as an Operational Manager of the Meghirigian Institute for Preventive Ophthalmology. In her health care management roles she had an opportunity to contribute to health care development in Armenia and represent the country in World Health Organisation planning meetings, development workshops and expert meetings. Her experience and background provided her with thorough knowledge and understanding of diverse health care systems which is essential in her current senior planning role at Alberta Health Services. In 2013 she was awarded with a Certificate of Appreciation for her expert planning skills, collaborative approach and innovative ideas that she has brought to all aspects of her work at AHS in an extremely short timelines.

Anna Oksuzyan (AUA MPH 2001), Max Planck Research Group Leader entitled Gender Gaps in Health and Survival at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Anna Oksuzyan, MD, MPH, PhD  from February 2015 will lead new Max Planck Research Group (MPRG) at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), Rostock, Germany investigating why women outlive men in all countries, although women generally report worse health, the so-called male–female health-survival paradox (http://www.demogr.mpg.de). Past several years Dr. Oksuzyan has spent investigating whether behavioral factors contribute substantially to the explanation of gender differences in health and mortality using an exceptionally rich data resource of Danish register and survey data that resulted in a number of publications in international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Oksuzyan is a 2001 graduate of the American University of Armenia (AUA)’s Master of Public Health (MPH) Program and a former Project Coordinator at the Center for Health Services Research and Development, AUA-. In 2010, she earned her PhD from the Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense, Denmark, where she continued working as a post-doctoral fellow in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Biodemography (EBB) Unit. Dr. Oksuzyan received the 2009 Annals of Epidemiology Best Paper Award nominated by the American College of Epidemiology. Oksuzyan et al article “The male-female health-survival paradox: a survey and register study of the impact of sex-specific selection and information bias” was one of the articles included into her PhD dissertation. In 2013 Dr. Oksuzyan was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the EBB Unit, SDU, where she is currently a Guest Researcher. Together with her new research group and in collaboration with international partners she will investigate how universal the male-female health-survival paradox is across different countries and what is the role of biological, demographic, and social factors in driving the paradox.