Kory Funk

Experience

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  Peace Corps

  Oct 2012 - Dec 2014

  Health Extension Officer

  Responsible for assisting community members in identifying and addressing community health problems, as well as taking community leaders through the sustainable project design and management process. Served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. ● Designed and implemented health SBCC interventions at local schools, dispensaries and markets ● Trained and strategically integrated community health workers to cover every village in the ward ● Leveraged donor resource to compelled the district government to fund a school science lab ● Collaborated with community leaders to secure funding for marketplace and a water catchment ● Served in various Peace Corps Tanzania leadership capacities, including writing Peace Corps Tanzania’s 2013 annual report for agency leaders and other stakeholders, rewriting Peace Corps Tanzania’s technical manual for the health sector, and revising Peace Corps Tanzania's health sector framework Show less

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  Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

  Jan 2015 - Mar 2016

  Program Support Officer

  Responsible for supporting the Center for Communication Programs (CCP), the Tanzania Communication and Development Center (TCDC), and VectorWorks. Also responsible for creating and managing resource-sharing opportunities between CCP and Peace Corps Tanzania. Served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. ● Designed and managed Peace Corps Volunteer collaboration with CCP and TCDC, including coordinating 22 Volunteers in 3 regions to support PMI's "School Net Program" and coordinating 70 Volunteers in 11 regions to support CCP's "Wazazi Nipendeni" MCH project ● Led development of TCDC’s “Let Girls Learn” bid to improve education outcomes for school girls ● Provided guidance to program management based on experience at the community level ● Supported CCP and affiliates with qualitative data-gathering and internal capacity-building Show less

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  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

  Apr 2018 - Nov 2018

  Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

  Responsible for the developing and implementing health promotion activities to increase access to MSF services, raise awareness about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and reduce stigma for SGBV survivors in Port Harcourt and the surrounding areas. ● Refined strategy for targeting most-at-risk-populations (MARPs), corresponding with a 14.5% increase in patient turnout, 42.1% increase in referrals by parents, and 20.6% increase in referrals from health center staff, among others ● Built output collection, management, and reporting tools to aid strategic decision-making, improving scheduling efficiency and targeting of most at-risk populations and key referrers ● Strengthened radio partnerships and implemented cost-effective strategy on top stations ● Developed FY2019 budget proposal and narrative, post-departure strategy, and logframe Show less

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  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

  Jul 2019 - Jul 2020

  Responsible for developing and implementing risk communication, community engagement, and context monitoring activities for MSF's intersectional COVID-19 emergency response in Juba. ● Designed and organized rapid assessments of 127 health facilities in Juba, producing the first detailed analysis of COVID-19 impact on Juba's health care system ● Developed network of 90 traditional, religious, women's, and youth leaders to monitor rumors and gain insight about rising community deaths and poor care-seeking behavior ● Developed and implemented health promotion activities in 5 marginalized Juba communities ● Assessed COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and rumors in 3 marginalized Juba communities Show less Responsible for developing and implementing health promotion, community engagement, and hospital support activities for MSF Holland's secondary hospital project in Bentiu Protection of Civilians (POC) camp. ● Implemented needs-based restructuring of HPCE team, improving efficiency and outputs while saving an estimated $70k of budget and protecting 21 national staff positions ● Conducted context assessments with key informants, providing insight into topics including IDP movements, IDP vaccination status, access to camp health services, WASH conditions and behaviors, and COVID-19 knowledge and attitudes ● Reformed blood donor solicitation and blood bank monitoring, stabilizing hospital blood supply ● Introduced team weekend rotation, increasing hospital support from 5 days per week to 7 days Show less

  • Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

    Apr 2020 - Jul 2020

  • Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

    Jul 2019 - Apr 2020
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  Ohio Department of Health

  Nov 2020 - Feb 2021

  Contact Tracer

  Responsible for interviewing confirmed COVID-19 cases, identifying close contacts and potential hot spots, providing supportive isolation and quarantine guidance to cases and contacts, and collecting and entering epideimiologic data into ODRS. Completed over 300 COVID-19 case investigations as part of a specialized surge response team supporting overwhelmed local health departments.

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  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

  Mar 2021 - Sept 2021

  Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

  Responsible for developing and initiating MSF's health promotion and community engagement strategy and ad-hoc COVID-19 Delta response for its Kamrangirchar project in Dhaka. The project focused on occupational health for factory workers, sexual and reproductive health for pregnant adolescents, and sexual and gender-based violence. ● Developed and initiated COVID-19 risk communication and community engagement activities, including KAP assessments, rumor monitoring, health promotion messaging and ICE materials development, and target distribution of IPC materials to key groups ● Identified, mapped, and engaged key influencers and health actor groups, including 353 pharmacies, 32 traditional birth attendants, and 116 mosques to improve patient referrals, community acceptance, and feedback gathering ● Improved tools and protocols for monitoring HPCE activities, patient feedback, and factory conditions Show less

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  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

  Jan 2022 - Apr 2022

  Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

  Responsible for developing and implementing health promotion and community activities for MSF's Mamfe project in Southwest Cameroon. The project used a community-based, decentralized model of care (DMC) and filled gaps in the conflict-affected local health infrastructure through support to the district hospital and four primary health care centers and ambulance services. ● Identified barriers to care seeking and proposed solutions to improve access for those in the service area ● Developed a "feedback gathering and response loop" to continuously solicit community feedback, integrate feedback into project decision-making, and communicate actions back to communities ● Initiated process improvements to increase efficiency and management of both the HPCE and medical teams, including expansion of the HPCE team, improved HPCE team support, and instigating discussions to improve the project's "meeting culture" and task force makeup ● Supported HPCE, logistical, and administrative functions during emergency suspension of activitiesOn 29 March 2022, the project was suspended and evacuated due to safety and security concerns. On 8 June 2022, the Mamfe District Hospital where the project was based was destroyed in an NSAG attack. Show less

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  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

  Jul 2022 - Jul 2023

  Mission (Flying) Health Promotion and Community Engagement Activities Manager

  Responsible for developing and implementing health promotion and community engagement activities for all three of MSF OCA's projects in Sierra Leone. This included health education, service promotion, and community engagement for primary and secondary-level care with a focus on mother and child health and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), in centralized and decentralized urban and rural contexts, as well as a specialized tuberculosis (TB) project that focused on increasing access to diagnosis and ambulatory care. ● Developed and implemented community feedback collection and reporting processes for internal sharing on all three mission projects, as well as a robust feedback collection and response loop for one project ● Mapped stakeholders and assets in over 250 communities for two projects and developed process for internal sharing with medical managers and the operations teams ● Introduced MUAC (nutritional) screening and referral to rural HPCE activities, identifying nearly 250 cases of malnutrition, including over 40 severe (SAM) cases ● Improved support for district hospital blood bank, including increasing blood drive output and digitizing list of rare blood donors for improved donor solicitation ● Trained and introduced TB-related HPCE activities at supported regional hospital, including TB screening in non-supported wards ● Organized and conducted 15 exploring values and attitudes (EVA) workshops on safe abortion care (SAC) for 252 MSF and MOHS staff with 5 LHS facilitators ● Wrote SOPs for several processes for institutional memory and to improve consistency, including for feedback gathering, blood drives, MUAC screening, and writing activity proposals Show less