Meet our HSPH Summer 2022 Fellows!

CFM is excited to introduce our two HSPH Fellows that will be working with us throughout this summer ’22, Amit Kumar and Rosie Batista! Rosie and Amit are graduate students at the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health and will be spending their fellowship with us working on two distinct but complementary policy briefs on ways to improve outcomes for youth in foster care.

Amit Kumar is a 1st-year graduate student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health pursuing an MPH in the field of Health Policy. Amit was raised in a small town in New Jersey called Toms River before completing his BS in Psychological Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. There, he researched learning and memory neuroscience, community health, and health policy analysis. Upon graduation, Amit worked at Attune Health, an outpatient autoimmune clinic, as the director of social media, as well as a clinical research coordinator and medical assistant. Amit’s project with CFM centers around developing innovative solutions to improve mental health outcomes among children in the Mississippi Foster Care system. 

Rosie is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.   She completed a post-baccalaureate degree at Harvard University and then earned her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health.  She volunteered in Uganda, East Africa where she focused on program development and writing policies to protect orphans impacted by HIV/AIDS. She then worked at AIDS Action Committee, Boston coordinating direct health and concrete services for HIV+ and AIDS clients.  She managed an ADHD randomized clinical trial at Boston Children’s Hospital. She managed multilingual community health workers at MGH Chelsea Healthcare Center in prevention services. She spent eight years at the Commonwealth of MA Dept of Early Education and Care as a quality assurance specialist where she used her analytical, child development, and contract management skills to oversee a prevention model.   In her recent role at East Boston Social Centers, she is the Director of Resilient Families Every Child Shines a parent-led, community-wide, and social justice-oriented movement to achieve equitable educational and various outcomes in early childhood. Rosie’s project at CFM focuses on innovative approaches for mental health in managed care for children in foster care using Value Based Payments. 

While in Mississippi, Amit and Rosie spent time traveling to and from places like Jackson and Oxford, explored local museums, cuisine, and nightlife, and met with state leaders to get firsthand accounts of the needs of our foster care system. We are looking forward to seeing what we will do together to make an impact!