A look at geographic data for water, sanitation and beyond begins this year's seminar series of The Center for Global Safe Water at the Rollins School of Public Health.

The talk, which is open to all, will be Monday, Sept. 15, at noon in Room 6001 of the Claudia Nance Rollins Building. Refreshments will be provided.

Clara R. Burgert, Geographic Information System (GIS) coordinator for the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program, will present the talk.

The DHS Program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by ICF International.

The DHS Program has been providing technical assistance for over 30 years to countries in collecting population-based data on demographics and health including family planning; malaria; HIV; water and sanitation; and maternal and child health, according to Burgert. The data is also used by USAID, WHO, country governments and NGOs to help evaluate and plan their health interventions.

"My talk will focus on the types of data that are available but with a focus on geographic trends and analysis," Burgert says.

Her talk will also highlight opportunities for and limitations with using the geographic components of the DHS data in analysis, evaluation and program targeting.

"The data is freely available and used by many students for thesis data analysis and researchers to contextualize their own research questions," says Burgert.

"One of my first exposures to the DHS data was in Dr. Stan Foster's 'Health Strategies' class while I was a student at Rollins," she says. Burgert is a 2008 graduate of the Global Epidemiology program at the Rollins School of Public Health.

For more information on the event or series, contact Kat Peters.