Professional Experience:
While working within the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Unit at UNICEF’s New York headquarters my duties include drafting the annual progress report, contributing to the development of the second issue of “Inequalities in Early Childhood Development” and the new presentation of the Unit on the internet. To achieve that I review databases, perform data quality assessments, produce tables and graphs, provide statistical analyses using descriptive, univariate and multivariate techniques, and compile the report. In addition, I was involved in the development of doctrinal documents and lessons learned for UNICEF’s Country Office Annual Reports. Through my participation in meetings of the Unit and communication with colleagues I gained valuable insight into several working areas within the ECD Unit.
Until recently, I was employed for four years as a research associate at the University Heidelberg, Germany. My responsibilities involved administration, project management and research tasks. With regard to administration I had to keep abreast of new developments. I reviewed documents and reports, made out critical points and provided updates within meeting sessions and through small information reports. I participated in meetings, compiled protocols or background reports, disseminated timetables and followed up to assure smooth implementation of decisions. During these processes I cooperated and communicated with different partners and research establishments and stayed in close contact with the colleagues of our research group. Concerning project management my tasks involved implementation of a project, data collection, handling and analysis. I have been working with different statistical methods and programs. I maintained the database of a huge research project and reported all incoming records with the needed information. My scientific tasks included the development of abstracts, overviews and publications as first author and assistance in drawing up others. I drafted reports out of the joint research project and completed a dissertation (Ph.D. thesis) at the University Heidelberg, Faculty of Behavioral and Cultural Studies. I organized meetings and symposia and prepared presentations and talks at national and international conferences.