Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

The Bechtel Lecture

Know-Do Gap: A Fallacy for Scale-Up & Sustainability

Malabika Sarker, Brown University

Implementation Research (IR) is a systematic process of causal analysis, bottlenecks of implementation identification, and optimum strategy selection in a particular context. IR refers to understanding know-do gaps; what, why, and how an intervention works in real-world settings and testing approaches to improve them, introduce potential solutions to a system, or promote their large-scale use and sustainability. Bridging the know-do gap is crucial for the successful implementation of any public health intervention especially in pertinent to scalability and sustainability. This presentation will showcase the fallacy in addressing the know-do gap as a simple linear two-dimensional strategy. In addition, it will illustrate with examples from Sarker’s research in Sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh, that the know-do gap is a continuum, not a binary theme.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Bechtel Lectureship Fund and the Department of International Studies.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. Malabika Sarker is a Professor of the Practice of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown School of Public Health, Brown University. Professor Sarker is an implementation researcher and a mixed-method expert. She is a physician with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University, the USA, and a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. During her career, she has taught across four continents and has extensive research experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh. She has been awarded over US $10 million in research/capacity-building grants and has published 132 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters. She is also the international advisory board member of The Lancet Global Health, World Federation Public Health Association, Medical Research Council UK, National Institute of Health Research UK, Chair of the Advisory Board of the HRP Alliance for Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS), and an Evaluation Advisory Committee Member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Prof. Sarker was awarded the “Heroines of Health” global award in 2018. Before joining Brown SPH, Prof. Sarker was the Associate Dean & Professor of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), BRAC University. Prof. Sarker founded the Institute Review Board (IRB) and the Center of Excellence of Science of Implementation & Scale-Up (SISU) at BRAC JPGSPH, Bangladesh. She also served as the Acting Dean in 2015 and as Research Advisor for BRAC University from 2019-2021.

Bechtel Lectureship

Established in honor of emeriti faculty Joan Bechtel (Library Resources), who served Dickinson from 1971 to 1995, and the late Dan R. Bechtel (Religion), who served Dickinson from 1964 to 1995, to support Clarke Forum speakers and events regarding Africa.