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CPC Fellow Dr. Sean Sylvia

Carolina Population Center Fellow Dr. Sean Sylvia recently received a Gillings Research Excellence Award from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Sylvia, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, was one of seven faculty members to receive the $500 award to help each support their research, scholarship, and professional development.

Dr. Sylvia’s research improves public health through three avenues: generating rigorous policy-relevant evidence, building capacity for research and practice, and implementing programs that directly impact the communities with which he works. His research leverages insights from economics and psychology to develop more efficacious and cost-effective health service delivery strategies in resource-limited settings. Most of his research has been conducted in middle-income countries where he has cultivated long-standing, fruitful partnerships.

“Over the past several years, Dr. Sylvia has focused his research agenda on digital health. For example, his research has included evaluating a program placing digital health kiosks in rural Chinese villages; conducting experiments with a large digital platform in India that mobilized volunteer health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic; and working with researchers at the University of Ghana to pilot a low-cost approach to disease surveillance using collective intelligence enabled by digital platforms,” says Kristin Reiter, PhD, Humana Distinguished Professor and chair in the health policy and management department. “His research has supported the provision of services and resources to tens of thousands of families in underserved communities.”