Jose Gonzalez is a health economist with seven years of experience conducting policy analysis and leading the implementation and evaluation of poverty alleviation programs and public health interventions in Colombia, Mexico, and Panama. He has also extensive research experience using qualitative and quantitative methods in projects focused on HIV, maternal and child health, and health systems strengthening.
At R4D, Mr. Gonzalez plays a leading role in providing technical and program management support to projects focused on the sustainability, integration, and transition of donor-funded health programs. He supports program and country-level work for USAID’s Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) | East Project, led by RTI International, in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Philippines, Nepal, and Indonesia.
In Colombia, Mr. Gonzalez worked at several federal agencies, including the National Planning Department, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, and the Department for Social Prosperity (DPS in Spanish). At DPS, he coordinated a group responsible for structuring pro-poor alliances and action plans with ministries, regional and local public institutions targeting households in extreme poverty. As a team coordinator, he developed a national system to provide technical assistance for 1,102 mayors and 32 governors to develop initiatives to overcome extreme poverty, in accordance with a new requirement established by national legislation.
Before joining R4D, Mr. Gonzalez was a research program coordinator at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). At MGH, he worked at the division of general internal medicine on a research project aimed at addressing barriers to HIV care adherence among Latino immigrants in Massachusetts. Jose also developed a monitoring and evaluation plan for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) in its recruitment and retention component of racial and ethnic minorities.
Mr. Gonzalez’s prior work in Colombia includes the evaluation of the health system reform and the design and implementation of a nationwide community-based childhood malnutrition screening project in partnership with UNICEF. While doing his MPH at Harvard, he worked as a research assistant with the Women and Health Initiative (W&HI) and the Global Maternal and Child Health Research Program. More recently, he interned with Pharos Global Health, a Boston-based non-profit policy and advisory organization, where he was part of a multidisciplinary team that evaluated Colombia’s readiness to transition from Global Fund financing.
Mr. Gonzalez was born and raised in Colombia where he received a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering with concentration in finance, a BA, and MS in economics from Los Andes University. Most recently, he completed his master of public health (MPH) degree with a concentration in global health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is a native speaker of Spanish and speaks fluent English.
