Awards

College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Young Alumni Award - 2018

About Jennifer Burnett-Zieman

Jennifer Burnett-Zieman leads the monitoring and evaluation for Abt Associates' SHOPS Plus Project. This private-sector health initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) strives to improve health outcomes worldwide by strategically engaging the private sector to increase access to priority health products and services. Throughout her career in international public health, Burnett-Zieman has promoted disease eradication, malaria prevention, health-system strengthening, and private-sector focused projects.

After graduating from Indiana University, she became a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, a move that would jumpstart her career in the area of international development. While in Ghana, she taught high school science, led a club for middle-school age girls, and worked with the regional Ministry of Health on HIV/AIDS. When she fulfilled her service obligation to the Peace Corps, she attended the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where she specialized in health and health policy, and interned at the United Nations. After graduate school, she worked in South Sudan on The Cater Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program. Because of this program's success, Guinea Worm Disease - a parasitic infection that once afflicted millions - is due to become the second disease eradicated in human history, and the only disease eradicated without a vaccine.

Upon her return from South Sudan, Burnett-Zieman moved to Washington, D.C., where she has supported USAID-funded projects and has focused her career on monitoring and evaluation. Her area of specialization is in designing data quality assurance systems for international projects. Her goal is to continue to develop frameworks that support project learning and adaptive management. In the fall of 2017, she was featured in The College Magazine's inaugural "20 Under 40" list.

Burnett-Zieman works collaboratively with foreign Ministries of Health to establish cultures and systems that facilitate data-driven decisions. Through the smart use of data, she believes that researches will be led to more efficient and effective development interventions, and ultimately better health outcomes for beneficiaries.