Barbara Friedland

I've been at the Population Council for almost 30 years, and my whole career in public health has been with this organization. Currently, I serve as Project Director of Clinical Behavioral Research for product development, working on a broader range of reproductive health products including those to prevent HIV, STIs, and pregnancy. My interest and passion for this work started with working on informed consent for participants in low- and middle-income countries who were going to be in clinical trials, figuring out ways to explain difficult concepts and making sure they really understood what the trial involved and the procedures. I was also involved in a study of male circumcision, which has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV by more than 60% in men who are circumcised. One of the most impactful things I've ever done came from that study - even though the main purpose was about informed consent, we learned that the anesthesia being used in one country was different from the other, and men in one country were complaining about horrible pain. Based on the results of our study, they changed the anesthesia regimen, which was amazing because most of my research takes a much longer time to have any kind of impact. A big part of my job is fundraising - we're a non-profit, so we have to bring in funds for all of the research that we do through NIH grant proposals and foundations. I also write study protocols, communicate regularly with colleagues both within my institution and with partners we work with to develop studies, troubleshoot recruitment and other challenges, and mentor junior staff. I would say communication and writing is definitely half of my job - writing study protocols, papers, grant proposals, and being very clear and crisp in emails. We also work to publicize our research through social media, our communications department, and presenting at conferences.