Robert Salerno, a 2011 graduate of the Global Health Sciences master’s program, works as a Development Specialist with Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), a large USAID implementer and global consulting firm. Salerno specializes in the intersection of health and nutrition and the role of livelihoods to improve health outcomes. He provides technical assistance and management support to health projects, focusing on household-level analysis, vulnerability mapping, and the design and support of programming to build the resilience of vulnerable populations. His projects have taken him to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Salerno developed a passion to serve the global community during his assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji. He worked with women’s groups on a small farm there, and learned that sustainable development needs to be built on local expertise and interventions must be designed on models of proven effectiveness. For his GHS fieldwork project in 2011, Salerno worked with the Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES) project in Kenya to assess food production and barriers to market access among HIV-positive farmers receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy. Salerno is applying these valuable experiences to his current work at DAI.