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Kathleen Novak, Ph.D.

Vice President, International Health Policy & Systems

Dr. Novak is a Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Abt Associates currently responsible for the technical, financial and contractual oversight of a health system strengthening project in Jordan that also has large family planning, reproductive health, safe motherhood, and community health components. She is also responsible for an innovative 100 million dollar project for health system and health service strengthening in Mozambique focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment, a 32 million dollar health information project in Kenya, and a 10 million dollar project focused on financial accountability in the health sector in Tanzania. In the past Dr. Novak has overseen health system strengthening projects in Peru and El Salvador, service delivery and infectious disease projects in Peru and Vietnam and HIV/AIDs programs in Zimbabwe and Central America. In 2008, Dr. Novak served as Acting Division Vice President in the International Health Area and oversaw the Private Sector and Service Delivery Practices.

Dr. Novak provides short-term technical assistance in the areas of organization development, program evaluation, strategic planning, training design and implementation, management, supervision, communication skills, conflict negotiation, crisis management and provision of mental health services in post disaster settings. She also has demonstrated success in conducting organizational assessments and interventions that address and resolve internal management issues with American and multi-cultural teams. Dr. Novak has extensive experience with U.S. Government programming and budgeting, competitive procurements, and contracting procedures. She also has more than twenty-five years experience in the direct provision of mental health services to children, adolescents and adults in a variety of clinical, medical, psychiatric and community based settings, and has taught at the university level and participated in research in applied health programs. Dr. Novak holds a Ph.D. and M.S.W. from Smith College School for Social Work.