Kristina Kastler is a Bixby Packard Fellow, serving as an Associate Specialist at the Bixby Center and as a Program Research Analyst with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Population & Reproductive Health program. She has an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Prior to joining the Bixby Center, Kristina worked with a non-profit pharmaceutical company to assess the feasibility of introducing a new, affordable hormonal IUD in Africa and South Asia.
As a graduate student, Kristina spent several months in northern Ethiopia supporting the monitoring and evaluation of the Bixby Center’s program to increase access to injectable contraceptives. Before coming to Berkeley, she worked with a grassroots health and development organization in rural Uganda to develop a community health worker (CHW) program aimed at improving maternal and newborn health. This experience convinced her that addressing women’s reproductive health needs is central to improving not only their own lives, but those of their children, families and communities. Kristina received her undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in International Affairs and French.