May 16, 2013 BGH

Who We Are

About Us

Braintree Global Health is an organization dedicated to the harnessing of applied research and evaluation methodologies to engage in building a rigorous evidence base for elucidating global health solutions. It is a partnership between Dr. Jenny Ruducha and Professor Peter Berman, a married couple dedicated to global health research and practice. With an exceptionally strong academic background and over 30 years experience working in developing countries across many parts of the globe, including living in India for 8 years, Peter and Jenny bring a unique set of talents and skills to their organization. Being based in Cambridge, one of the most vibrant academic and knowledge production hubs worldwide further enhances our ability to access and utilize our combined global and national networks of talented professionals to provide innovative approaches to global health challenges.

Our Leadership Team

JennyDr. Jenny Ruducha (MPH, DrPH), Lead Partner, is an evaluation and applied research expert with over 25 years of experience in designing program evaluation methodologies with a focus on maternal, newborn, child and reproductive health. She has worked with governments, international organizations, academic institutions as well as community based organizations to be the bridge between incorporating more rigorous scientific methods into challenging “real life” program implementation environments. Her most recent work expands into Organizational Network Analysis, a quantitative and visual methodology for improving the understanding of intra and inter organizational relationships to enhance performance in partnerships, collaboration and cross-sectoral coordination. Dr. Ruducha holds an MPH and DrPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Society and Health Program at Harvard School of Public Health and the Health Institute at Tufts Medical Center.

Berman-250x250Prof. Peter Berman (MSc. Ph.D.), Partner, is a health economist with more than thirty years of experience in research, policy analysis and development, and training and education in global health. Prof. Berman is Professor of the Practice of Global Health Systems and Economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is the faculty director of HSPH’s Doctor of Public Health degree, director of education for global health and population at HSPH and actively engaged in graduate education reform in global public health at HSPH. Currently, Prof. Berman leads several innovative projects on developing primary care systems, strengthening service delivery, and improving health care financing mechanisms for better outcomes, with a focus on work in Ethiopia, India, and Malaysia. He is co-author of Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity (Roberts, et al, Oxford University Press, 2003), co-editor of the Guide to the Production of National Health Accounts (World Bank, World Health Organization, and USAID, 2003), and co-editor of Berman and Khan, Paying for India’s Health Care (Sage, 1993).

Our History

Drs. Jenny Ruducha (MPH, DrPH) and Peter Berman (MSc, PhD), launched Braintree Global Health, LLC in November 2011 with the goal of promoting global health progress through the creation of an integrated scientific and networking approach to program development, rigorous evaluation, capacity building and health systems strengthening. Jenny and Peter co-founded Braintree Global Health to provide flexible alternative strategies and creative solutions to global health and development challenges while maintaining academic pursuits at Boston University Center for Global Health, Department of Global Health and Development and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population.

Our life-long partnership started at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1984 at a mutual friend’s anti-apartheid fundraiser. The intersection of our common interests in social justice and global health along with a vision of having a family together led to a joint marriage and work partnership in 1986. Over the course of the last 30 years, Jenny has worked in program planning, evaluation and applied health services research in a variety of domestic and international settings with a focus on improving health and services for vulnerable population groups. Peter’s research on global health systems and teaching and capacity building has led to the development of major programmatic approaches, methods, tools and applications and training of hundreds of global health researchers and practitioners around the world. Our journey together, with 3 kids in tow, has taken us to India twice (1987-1991) and (2004-2008). Peter has also spent six years living in Indonesia (1973-77, 1981-83). We also have spent a lot of time working in many other countries and deeply understand the importance of cultural and social understanding as an important component of any applied research and evaluation program.

As requests for advice and technical expertise was growing following our second return from India, we wanted to create a practical and responsive mechanism for contributing to the advancement of global health and development. Applying our own brain power and harnessing talented networks of academics, global researchers and practitioners, we seek to generate creative momentum to address intransient problems and avoid repeating past missteps. Our new phase of partnership with the establishment of BRAINTREE Global Health is built on a shared professional and personal journey where synthesizing, distilling and challenging new ideas and perspectives in global health is in our DNA.  We continue to be based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Braintree, Vermont and are frequent travelers to India, our adopted country and many other places of work and personal interest in Asia and Africa.