Carissa Novak is the Assistant Director of Programs, overseeing all programmatic work at HGHI. Prior to joining HGHI, she worked at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with an ecology and infectious disease research team, where she spent time living and working in Madagascar.

She also worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill managing a large-scale sexual assault research network, which included leading the first ever prospective study of sexual assault trauma in adult women in the US. She lived and worked in Kenya and Uganda while studying barriers to reproductive healthcare, specifically in seeking treatment for HPV and cervical cancer. She received her Master of Science in Global Health from Duke University’s Global Health Institute, and her BA in International Relations from Auburn University.

Luke Testa leads several programmatic initiatives at HGHI focused on global vaccine equity, health misinformation, and organizational development. Luke is also the lead coordinator of HGHI’s communications portfolio.

Between 2013 and 2017, Luke co-founded and managed the nonprofit Project PLAY NH which sought to increase youth access to organized sports in Manchester, NH. More recently, Luke served as the Director of Program for HOBY NH and was committed to several positions at the Sununu Youth Services Center (SYSC). At SYSC, he researched, developed, and managed programs that aimed to lower the youth recidivism rate.