Andrea supports CrisisReady’s network in Latin America, helping advance data collaboration between local disaster agencies and actors.
As a Research Affiliate at CrisisReady, Andrea Parra Salazar helps bridge the gap between research and actionable policy by supporting data-driven collaborations between local disaster response agencies and key stakeholders throughout Latin America. He achieves this by helping organize regional workshops and engage with key stakeholders across the region.
Andrea is an interdisciplinary professional who graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A in Fine Arts and B.S in Mechanical Engineering. She then earned a master’s in Computer Science from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Since then she has been working in public health by designing information systems that aim to bridge the gap between research and public policy. She has collaborated with numerous decision-makers in Colombia to bring actionable insights from data analysis.
Andrea worked in R&D of water treatment technologies for a couple of years before shifting her focus to public health. She has developed bioinformatic tools for genomic analysis, cloud infrastructure for mobility data processing, and analytical pipelines for spatial epidemiology. Recently she has been focused on using her information technologies knowledge to inform public policy in projects ranging from malaria transmission in the Colombia-Venezuela border, indigenous self-governance in the Amazon rainforest, and non-pharmaceutical interventions for Covid management in Bogotá.
EDUCATION
- MS, Computer Science, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
- BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Virginia
- BA, Fine Arts, University of Virginia
INTERESTS
- Knowledge Translation
- Machine Learning
- Spatial Epidemiology
- Population Health
- Network Analysis