Andrea Blanchard, PhD, MSc, BAH

Research summary

Dr. Blanchard's research focuses on understanding how population health programs can equitably improve health for women, children and their families within their social, economic and political contexts.

She works in close partnership with leading academic institutions, government and non-governmental partners around the world to optimize public health programs for underserved populations.

Her work has highlighted the ways that community-based approaches can reduce health inequities with support from consistent public policy and broader systemic change.

Dr. Andrea Blanchard is an assistant professor at IGPH (University of Manitoba). Dr. Blanchard applies interdisciplinary mixed-methods with a 'multifocal lens' - blending people’s lived experiences with population-level patterns - to develop more effective and ethical approaches to improving population health. Her doctoral work examined the influence of community health workers' home visits on equity in perinatal health in Uttar Pradesh state in India. The opportunity to live and work in India over many years has deeply shaped her passion to work collaboratively to understand and address health inequities globally.

Since her postdoctoral fellowship, she has been able to engage in research and mentorship with the global Countdown to 2030 for women’s, children’s and adolescent’s health initiative. She has been the UM technical lead working with the Zambia Countdown country collaboration, and supports the Pakistan collaboration. She has also led the Maternal and Newborn Health Strategies study with 21 Sub-Saharan African country teams, the African Population Health Research Center and other global partners.

She coordinated the India Exemplars in Maternal and Newborn Health study working closely with leading national academic and government partners there, which highlighted the value of learning from success in the past to inform future health policy and systems change. She continues to work with these partners to understand urban health equity in India and to optimize implementation of the government's comprehensive primary health care strategies.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Global Health, University College London, United Kingdom (2015-2019)

Master of Science in Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Canada (2012-2015)

Bachelor of Arts Honours in International Development Studies, University of Winnipeg, Canada (2007-2011)

Awards

2020-2023: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

2015-2018: University College London Overseas Research Scholarship & Graduate Research Scholarship

2015-2016: London Goodenough Association of Canada Scholarship 

2013: David G. Fish Memorial Scholarship Award

2012-2014: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Master’s Award: HIV/AIDS Community-based Research

2012: Chancellor’s Gold Medal for Highest Standing in Arts (Honours) & University of Winnipeg Gold Medal for Highest Standing in International Development Studies (Honours)

2011: University of Winnipeg Women’s Auxiliary Scholarship