OnFrontiers’ Global Health Helpdesk
Investment Model Development 

Location: New York City, New York
Duration: 8-12 weeks
Number of Positions: 1
 
About: The objective of OnFrontiers’ Global Health Helpdesk is to provide an efficient, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding global health challenges and developing appropriate policy responses. OnFrontiers’ Global Health Helpdesk builds off the success of OnFrontiers’ COVID-19 Helpdesk. The COVID-19 Helpdesk, launched in March 2020, provided organizations and companies access to a multi-disciplinary group of highly qualified experts in epidemiology, global health security, economics, crisis management and risk communication. A description of these experts is available at this link: https://covid.onfrontiers.com/experts/treatment. The intense interest in the COVID-19 Helpdesk from organizations in the public sector as well as companies, led to the decision by OnFrontiers to expand this model to include a broader focus on global health.
 
Similar to the COVID-19 Helpdesk, the Global Health Helpdesk will consist of a multi-disciplinary group of experts from the fields of epidemiology, economics, ecology, anthropology and risk communication. Given the breadth and depth of this expertise, OnFrontiers will be able to rapidly develop multi-disciplinary teams tailored to the needs of each global health policy challenge presented by clients (e.g., WHO, CDC, Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum).
 
Intern Responsibilities: The responsibilities of the research intern will mirror the process by which the Global Health Helpdesk interacts with each client. An intern will have three key responsibilities:
 
1)  Analyzing the global health policy challenge presented by each client.
This work will involve examining the policy challenge and understanding the specific needs of each client as those needs may range from an academic publication to a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the findings from the analysis. The intern will need to be comfortable working independently to conduct a literature review to understand the various policy responses that have been utilized in other contexts. In most cases, this literature review and analysis will be completed in 3 to 5 days. After the intern completes his/her analysis, he/she will present their findings to Derek Willis and will receive feedback to inform future analyses.
 
2) Identifying the characteristics of the team that will be most appropriate to address the policy challenge.
Based on their analysis of the policy challenge, the intern will identify the characteristics of the team that will be most appropriate to address the client’s concerns. These characteristics may include the disciplinary background of each team member as well as language skills and knowledge of a specific geographic context. If the necessary experts are not already part of the Global Health Helpdesk, the intern will work with Derek Willis to identify appropriate experts to recruit to the Helpdesk to complete the team.
 
3) Facilitating collaboration among experts to address needs of each client
The intern will work closely with Derek Willis to facilitate a collaboration by the team members towards the development of the product each client requests. As noted above, the product requested by each client could range from an academic publication to a presentation deck. Depending on the client’s needs, the intern will assist with centralizing relevant references and data in a google drive folder that can be accessed by all team members. This information will initially consist primarily of the literature that the intern consulted during their analysis of the global health policy challenge. Depending on the client’s needs, the intern may also develop spreadsheets and presentation decks that incorporate the contributions from each team member. This work will provide the intern the opportunity to develop skills in translating findings across disciplines and facilitating multi-disciplinary collaborations.
 
Qualifications: Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets. Strong writing skills and experience in developing presentation decks. Spanish proficiency preferred but not essential.
 
Travel Notice: It is not yet certain whether summer 2021 internships will be on-site or virtual.  If health and safety conditions improve, it is possible that some internships may be on-site. CHW will make final determinations on the travel status of each internship in consultation with Princeton University officials, host organizations, and selected interns by spring 2021.
 
Funding: If travel to the internship site is permitted, CHW will cover all expenses for airfare, housing, food, local transportation, and incidentals.  If an intern chooses to stay home, or if travel is not permitted, CHW will provide a $1,500 stipend to remote interns.

Website: https://onfrontiers.com/
 
View Internship Summary Posters from OnFrontiers Student Interns:
 
Summer 2020
Maressa Cumbermack '21 - OnFrontiers’ Covid-19 Expert HelpDesk
Victoria Zhou '22 - Covid-19 Expert Helpdesk