Hilary Schwandt

Professor

About

Biography

Hilary Schwandt earned her BS in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University. After graduating from Calpoly she lived in Jamaica for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She then earned her master’s and her doctoral degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Hilary’s doctoral dissertation was on unsafe abortion in Ghana and included a qualitative study on the pathways to abortion, a comparison of incomplete pregnancy patients and a randomized, noninferiority trial of group vs. individual family planning counseling. Her main area of research interest is reproductive health. Just prior to joining Fairhaven College, Hilary was working in the research division at the Center for Communication Programs in Baltimore, Maryland. At the Center for Communication Programs she was the technical monitoring and evaluation advisor for numerous projects, such as the Go Girls Initiative! – a project that aimed to reduce adolescent girls’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique; the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative – a project that aimed to reduce the barriers to family planning use among the urban poor; a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission project in Ethiopia; and a malaria prevention during pregnancy project in Zambia. Hilary grew up in Bellingham and she is delighted for the opportunity to live once again in Bellingham and work with the esteemed Fairhaven College faculty.

Interest Areas At Fairhaven

Hilary teaches courses centered around population health, particularly reproductive health, such as: infectious disease - specifically HIV, nutrition, statistics, and pregnancy and childbirth.  

Selected Publications

Schwandt HM, Sparkle B, Post-Kinney M. (2018). Ambiguities in Washington State hospital policies, irrespective of Catholic affiliation, regarding abortion and contraception service provision. Reproductive Health 15:178.

Schwandt HM, Feinberg S, Akotiah A, Douville TY, Gardner EV, Imbabazi C, McQuin E, Mohamed M, Rugoyera A, Musemakweli D, Nichols W, Nyangezi NU, Serrano Arizmendi J, Welikala D, Yamuragiye B, Zigo L. (2018). "Family planning in Rwanda is not seen as population control, but rather as a way to empower the people": Examining Rwanda's Success in Family Planning from the Perspective of Public and Private Stakeholders. Contraception and Reproductive Medicine 3:18