2026 Cohort of HGHI Burke Fellows

Carl Denis Britto, MBBS, DPhil, is an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an Attending in Critical Care at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he also serves as the Co-Director for Research for the Global Health Program. Operating at the intersection of global health, acute care, and artificial intelligence, Dr. Britto is dedicated to vaidating and deploying  medically grounded, infrastructure-agnostic digital solutions to mitigate the digitization gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  A former Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Britto earned his DPhil from the University of Oxford and subsequently trained in pediatrics and pediatric cirtical care at Boston Children’s hospital as well conducted post-doctoral research at Harvard. His clinical experiences managing rural patients in India profoundly shaped his research agenda, revealing that pediatric and neonatal survival in high-acuity settings is often limited not by hardware, but by the absence of longitudinal data synthesis. Over the past five years, he has spearheaded a highly productive collaboration with NICUs and ICUs in India, leveraging data from an expansive tele-ICU network spanning 13 Indian states to develop algorithmic escalation models for respiratory distress. His work has consistently driven global health policy and clinical innovation. As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Britto aims to leverage advanced predictive analytics to level the clinical playing field and ensure equitable, data-driven critical care for the world’s most vulnerable newborns. 

Project Title: Predicting Neonatal Respiratory Escalation in Resource-Limited Settings: A Prospective 20-Site Validation of Infrastructure-Agnostic Frugal Artificial Intelligence across Tiered Indian NICUs.

Project Description: Respiratory failure is the leading driver of neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), accounting for roughly 35% of newborn deaths globally. In these resource-constrained environments, the absence of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) creates a severe digitization gap that prevents the implementation of life-saving predictive analytics. To bridge this divide, this project aims to deploy and prospectively validate an infrastructure-agnostic frugal AI framework designed to bypass traditional, cost-prohibitive EHR pipelines. The innovative, dual-stage computational architecture pairs a high-fidelity Computer Vision (CV) engine which repurposes existing analog bedside monitors into digital data sources via automated image processing with a parsimonious, four-variable Machine Learning (ML) model that predicts imminent respiratory escalation.  This study will be conducted as prospective validation of the integrated CV-ML pipeline across a tiered network of 20 Indian Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), encompassing urban, semi-urban, and rural facilities. Enrolling 1,000 neonates, the project will rigorously evaluate the CV pipeline’s technical accuracy against a human-verified gold standard, validate the predictive precision of the ML respiratory signature in a live clinical environment, and quantify real-world clinical adoption, specifically measuring the lead-time gain provided to frontline clinicians. By transforming passive clinical observation into proactive, data-driven intervention without requiring costly hardware upgrades, this interdisciplinary initiative establishes a vendor-agnostic blueprint to eliminate preventable neonatal mortality and advance health equity in global critical care.

Anahí Venzor Strader is a pediatrician originally from Chihuahua, México, the ancestral territory of the Rarámuri and Tepehuan peoples. Her extensive work in global health centers on the health and rights of Indigenous children in Northern México and Guatemala.

She completed her medical education at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, her pediatrics residency at Wake Forest University, a Global Health fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, and her Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School. Over the last twelve years, she has collaborated closely with grassroots organizations like Hospital Misión Tarahumara and Wuqu’ Kawoq / Maya Health Alliance. Following her earlier mixed-methods research (2021–2023) exploring the biosocial determinants of neonatal mortality in rural Guatemala, her focus has evolved toward developing collaborative solutions to these challenges through co-design and anticolonial initiatives. These innovative projects include implementing AI and smartphone technology to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality, as well as establishing home-based care models for small and vulnerable babies.

In addition to her international work, Anahí leads a quality improvement initiative to improve healthcare delivery for newly arrived immigrant children in Boston. Clinically, she serves as a pediatric hospitalist at Winchester Hospital while also holding a junior faculty role at Harvard Medical School. As a Burke Global Health Fellow, Anahí looks forward to leveraging her training and research to continue materializing the right to health for Indigenous populations and advancing community-based health equity.

Project Title: Co-design and Early Evaluation of a Culturally Grounded Home-Based Care Package for Small and Vulnerable Newborns in Indigenous Guatemala

Project Description: In the rural highlands of Guatemala, premature and low-birth-weight babies face steep hurdles to survival due to geographical isolation, limited hospital capacity, and distinct cultural barriers. To bridge this gap, Dr. Anahí Venzor Strader is leading a pioneering initiative with Wuqu’ Kawoq that flips the traditional medical paradigm. Instead of dictating care from the top down, this project positions traditional Maya midwives, local health workers, and caregivers as equal co-designers of a culturally grounded, home-based care package.

Supported by the Burke Fellowship, the team will formally evaluate the integration of ancestral postpartum wisdom with modern digital tools—including low-cost hardware and a smartphone-based clinical support app—into co-designed care and referral protocols. By evaluating the real-world success and cultural adaptability of practices like thermal protection, feeding supplementation, and home-based growth tracking, this project aims to establish an emancipatory, community-governed healthcare blueprint. Ultimately, these insights will help protect vulnerable newborns in remote, resource-constrained settings worldwide.

Dr. David A. Barnes is a veterinary scientist and infectious disease researcher working at the intersection of zoonotic diseases, genomics, climate, and global health. Originally from Ghana, he trained as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana and completed his PhD in Infectious Diseases at Hokkaido University, Japan, where his research focused on the molecular epidemiology and population genomics of Mycobacterium bovis and zoonotic tuberculosis in West Africa. David was a Takemi Fellow in International Health (2025–2026) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he worked across global health and infectious disease research.

His research integrates genomic epidemiology, One Health approaches, and community-informed public health strategies to better understand how environmental and structural factors shape infectious disease risk. His work has contributed to understanding the diversity and transmission dynamics of zoonotic tuberculosis in Africa and aims to strengthen locally led research capacity and evidence-based policy development. Through the HGHI–Salata Burke Climate and Health Fellowship, David will investigate how climate change influences zoonotic tuberculosis risk in Ghana and explore practical approaches to improve surveillance, preparedness, and climate-resilient health systems in vulnerable communities.

Project Title: Climate Change, Zoonotic Tuberculosis, and Health Inequities in Ghana: One Health Interface Risks

Project Description: Climate change is intensifying zoonotic disease (zTB) threats in low-resource settings by altering ecosystems, livestock mobility, and human-animal interactions. This project examines how climate variability influences zTB transmission dynamics through three objectives: (1) synthesize global evidence on how extreme weather events affect zTB transmission and extrapolate these findings to identify climate-sensitive hotspots, (2) assess the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers most at risk of climate and disease-related shocks, and (3) co-develop participatory surveillance and early-warning tools with communities to strengthen detection and response to zTB under changing climate conditions. By combining climate science, participatory epidemiology, and disease modelling, this interdisciplinary work will generate context-specific evidence to inform Ghana’s National Adaptation Plan for climate change and enhance preparedness for zoonotic disease emergence. The project also contributes to the growing field of climate–health research, advancing equitable resilience strategies at the intersection of global health and climate adaptation.

Hassan Pishahang is an award-winning designer, researcher, and educator whose work has evolved through more than fifteen years of engagement with materials, fabrication, and design. He began his professional career working with advanced composites, polymers, concrete, and other industrial materials, developing expertise in material formulation, mold making, prototyping, and the fabrication of complex forms.

Through this experience, Pishahang became increasingly aware of the environmental consequences associated with conventional material production and disposal. This realization led him to redirect his practice toward more sustainable material systems and to investigate how biological materials could be integrated into design and fabrication.

Working with biomaterials introduced a different set of challenges. Unlike standardized industrial materials, living and bio-based materials are variable, responsive, and not always fully controllable. His research therefore explores new ways of designing with material behavior rather than imposing predetermined forms upon it. He has developed and tested advanced mold-making techniques, computationally designed scaffolds, and hybrid fabrication systems that support and guide the growth of materials such as mycelium and plant roots.

By connecting his industrial fabrication background with biomaterial research, computational design, and environmental performance, Pishahang seeks to develop lower-impact material systems that respond more closely to ecological conditions and human needs. He also brings more than a decade of university-level teaching experience, and his design and research work has received multiple international awards and has been presented through international design and computational-design venues.

Project Title: Climate-Responsive Bio-Integrated Shelter Systems for Health in Mobile and Temporary Living Environments

Project Description: Climate change is increasing health risks for people living in temporary and mobile environments, including refugee camps, post-disaster shelters, and other non-permanent settings. These environments often expose occupants to extreme heat, poor ventilation, limited environmental control, and sustained psychological stress. Many existing shelter systems rely on synthetic materials that can trap heat, restrict airflow, and create uncomfortable indoor conditions.

This project investigates how bio-based textile materials can be developed as adaptive environmental systems that support both physical and psychological well-being. Rather than treating textiles as passive enclosure materials, the research explores how animal- and plant-based fibers can function as responsive membranes that regulate heat, airflow, and moisture.

The study combines material characterization, computational environmental modeling, modular prototyping, and user-centered evaluation. It will examine material properties such as thermal performance, porosity, air permeability, and moisture responsiveness, then translate those findings into lightweight and scalable shelter systems.

The project aims to develop low-carbon, climate-responsive design strategies that improve thermal comfort, increase occupants’ sense of environmental control, and reduce climate-related stress. Its broader goal is to establish transferable design principles for healthier temporary and mobile living environments across diverse humanitarian and climate-exposed contexts.