Speaker: Unmesha Roy Paladhi, MPH, PhD Candidate

Title: A RCT of the Effectiveness of HIV Self-Testing within Partner Services in Western Kenya

Unmesha Roy Paladhi (Mesha) is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Her work focuses on improving the effectiveness of assisted partner services (APS) in Kisumu and Homa Bay, Kenya by introducing HIV self-testing as an option to the current assisted partner services (APS) framework and leveraging Behavioral Economics (BE) concepts such as non-financial incentives to increase testing uptake and linkage to care. Previously the RA on the APS study for two years, she is currently the Tutoring RA of the IARTP/Fogarty Program at DGH. Prior to UW, she obtained her MPH from the University of Pennsylvania and concurrently worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator, running clinical trials on Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.