Country: United States
Biography
Dr. Janie Benson is an experienced research and evaluation specialist in global reproductive health in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Her expertise includes program monitoring and evaluation (M&E), capacity building, and use of evidence for decision-making and policy and practice change. She has been a researcher on numerous studies focused on abortion care and contraception.
Dr. Benson provided strategic and technical leadership for Ipas, a global non-profit organization focused on reducing unsafe abortion and advancing women’s reproductive rights, where she served as Vice President for Research and Evaluation. She developed and directed the organization’s programmatic M&E system and served as investigator/co-investigator for research in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, the US and other countries. Her specialty areas included improving abortion care quality and access, women’s and providers’ perspectives on abortion, costs of abortion care, postabortion contraceptive uptake, and health worker performance. She has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet, Social Science and Medicine, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Health Policy and Planning, and Global Health: Science and Practice.
Her background includes design of organizational strategic plans, use of Log Frames, Results Frameworks and other planning and M&E tools, and experience with diverse foundation, bi-lateral and multilateral donors. Dr. Benson coordinated partnerships with numerous organizations such as the World Health Organization, Guttmacher Institute, The Population Council, country-based universities, non-governmental organizations, and professional associations. She has served as a presenter, panel organizer and moderator for meetings of the Population Association of America, American Public Health Association, National Abortion Federation, Society for Family Planning, and the International Conferences on Family Planning.
Dr. Benson also served as Program Manager for Latin America for the Pathfinder Fund (now Pathfinder International) and was a Fellow for the University of Michigan Population Service Fellowship Program, based at The Population Council Regional Office in Mexico City.
Dr. Benson is currently an independent consultant in global reproductive health; her clients have included Ipas, Plan International UK, Pathfinder International and EngenderHealth. She is an Adjunct Professor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health, where she was a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the Schools of Public Health and Nursing.
Dr. Benson is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Fairbanks School of Public Health of Indiana University. She is an instructor for the course, “Program Evaluation for Global Health Leadership” in the Doctoral Program for Public Health Leadership.
Dr. Benson received her master’s degree in public health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her doctorate in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Benson is fluent in English and Spanish. She currently resides in North Carolina.