Olivia Biermann

Olivia Biermann

Affiliated to Teaching/Tutoring
Visiting address: Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: K9 Global folkhälsa, K9 GPH Alfvén, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a health policy and systems researcher with a PhD in Medical Science from Karolinska Institutet and work experience from the World Health Organization. My mission is to do research that is relevant and useful for informing decision-making in health, and to build capacity for research and research use. I was named an Emerging Voice for Global Health in 2018. 



  • I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, focusing on the political economy of adolescent mental health and well-being. As a Lancet Commissioner, I am also co-leading a workstream on the topic as part of the second Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. I work as a part-time consultant at the World Health Organization.

    Previously, I was a Fellow at the Boston University-Rockefeller Foundation Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-making. Moreover, I worked for three years as a full-time consultant in knowledge translation at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe where I provided technical support to the Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe. I worked and studied in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Africa, Uganda and Vietnam. In addition to my academic activities, I served as President of the non-governmental organization Foundation Human Nature, supporting community-based rural health and development work in Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal and Rwanda.

Research

  • Within the field of health policy and systems research, I conduct qualitative and mixed-methods research, as well as reviews. I am particularly interested in the gaps between evidence and policy, and policy and implementation in low- and middle-income countries.

    My PhD thesis was entitled "Global policy to local implementation: experiences from active tuberculosis case-finding in high-burden countries" and is available for download here: https://openarchive.ki.se/xmlui/handle/10616/47542. The work was part of the Horizon 2020-funded IMPACT TB.

Teaching

  • I teach health systems and policy in the following programmes:
    * Master's Programme in Global Health, Karolinska Institutet
    * Master's Programme in Health Economics, Policy and Management, Karolinska Institutet
    * Master's Programme in Public Health, Lund University

Articles

All other publications

Employments

  • Affiliated to Teaching/Tutoring, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2024-2027
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-2024

Degrees and Education

  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2021

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