Buehler Center Evaluation Program Supports Faculty Global Health Projects

January 2026

The Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health and the Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM)’s Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics helps to foster high-quality, policy-relevant economic research through multiple programs. Among these initiatives is the Buehler Center Evaluation Program, which provides evaluation and research methods support to researchers at Northwestern University, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago community members and international partners.

The aims of this program are to strengthen the evaluation and research capacity of community organizations in Chicago and beyond. The team works to support Northwestern and other faculty in their research activities with the goal to ensure that all work is high quality in order to lead to the greatest impact on health. Program opportunities range from short-term check-ins to long-term partnerships in the areas of planning, evaluation services and capacity building. 

These services include: 

Planning 

• Working with researchers and programs on initial proposal drafts and the creation of evaluation plans. This can include advising on evaluation budgets, scope of data collection activities, offering tool selection, partnering on the proposal, designing the evaluation plan and assisting with writing and submission. 

• Creating evaluation plans for existing projects/programs. 

Evaluation Services 

• Working with department staff to evaluate policies or programs currently in place. 

• Overseeing implementation of funded project/program evaluation plans. This can include staff supervision, data collection, data management and data analysis services. The team has experience with quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation. 

Capacity Building 

• Evaluation education and capacity building, including trainings and workshops on evaluation topics such as conducting focus groups, creating surveys and creating strong logic models for theory-based evaluation. 

Leading this initiative is Sarah Welch, MPH, director of Evaluation Research at the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics. Welch supports Northwestern faculty and their research through her role as a methodologist. Her role shifts depending on the research, leading her to serve as a qualitative specialist or external evaluator to bring research design and methods expertise to a project. 

“At the Buehler Center, we work with researchers from around the university and beyond in order to support and strengthen their work,” Welch said. “This work is important because these are disciplines in their own right and are necessary to ensure projects can achieve their aims and have faith in their findings.” 

Welch has worked on projects based in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and the US. Among these projects are Havey Institute for Global Health Catalyzers and a Key Initiative Grant. Welch has served various roles on projects, including co-investigator on Scoping Current Opportunities for Health Professions Education (SCOHPE) in Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa with principal investigator Ashti Doobay-Persaud, MD, and Improving the Usability and Value of Human Mobility Data for Future Pandemic Disasters with principal investigator Jennifer Chan, MD, MPH, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission & Policy: Using Active Surveillance with Bench Science to Inform What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Promising? with principal investigators Alexander Lundberg, PhD, and Lori Post, PhD. 

(L-R) Anthea Hansen, PhD, Sarah Welch, MPH and Ashti Doobay-Persaud, MD present Scoping Current Opportunities for Health Professions Education (SCOHPE) at the Stellenbosch University/Northwestern University Global Health Knowledge Hub meeting in March 2025.

As a qualitative expert, Welch has worked on Assessment of the Integration of Adolescent and Youth Friendly Health Services in Primary Health Centers in Ogun State (Nigeria) with principal investigators Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPHD, Mobolanle Balogun, MBBS, MPH, and Gregg Montalto, MD, MPH and as a qualitative methodologist on Age-friendly Primary Health Care for Older Adults: Selecting and Co-designing Priority Interventions for facilities in Lagos, Nigeria with principal investigators Hirschhorn, Balogun, and Adedoyin Ogunyemi, MBBS, MPH. 

“The need for methodological expertise in evaluation and research methods is critical because they provide the foundation upon which the research is built,” Welch said.

To learn more about the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics, visit their website. 

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