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Christina Synowiec

Practice Lead, Evaluation and Adaptive Learning

Christina Synowiec is a senior program director on the learning and experimentation team at Results for Development. She joined R4D in September 2012 and has worked across the organization’s health, education, early childhood development, and child protection initiatives. Previously, she was at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she earned her MSc in Public Health as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.

Ms. Synowiec works on R4D’s growing portfolio of program monitoring, learning, and evaluation initiatives to support internal learning opportunities for our health and education programs – called our Learning Lab approach. R4D has applied this approach in partnership with a range of partners including Mobile Creches, the UBS Optimus Foundation, Worldreader, and Pearson. Ms. Synowiec and team are now partnering with USAID’s Global Development Lab to pilot Rapid Feedback Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) with up to 15 pilots to address the need for systematic approaches to learning and adaptation.

Prior to joining R4D in 2010, Ms. Synowiec was a Senior Research Analyst at the Advisory Board Company, where she designed and executed best practice research studies analyzing key economic and political trends affecting U.S. hospitals. She has field experience in Latin America, conducting research on internal displacement in Nicaragua and Colombia and leading international delegations to Mexico and Venezuela. As a Fulbright Grantee, she also lived in South Korea in the Jeollanam-do province. Ms. Synowiec holds a Bachelors of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (Magna Cum Laude) specializing in international human rights from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Articles and other publications

Hansen, P, Synowiec, C, and Blanchet, N. Coproduction between researchers and policymakers is critical for achieving health systems change. British Medical Journal. 15 February 2021.

Synowiec, Christina, et al. Mossman, K., McGahan, A., et al (Eds.) Private Sector Entrepreneurship in Global Health: Innovation, Scale, and Sustainability. University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Synowiec, C., et al. How can proposals be designed from the outset to facilitate adaptation: Pragmatic advice for practitioners. The Curve, 2019.

Synowiec, C., et al. Built to evolve: A donor’s guide to making grants adaptive. The Curve, 2019.

Synowiec, C., et al. Success stories: Inspiring case studies of continuous improvement. The Curve, 2019.

Viswanath K, Synowiec C and Agha S. Responsive feedback: Towards a new paradigm to enhance intervention effectiveness [version 2; peer review: 4 approved]. Gates Open Res 2019, 3:781

Synowiec, C., with the University of Toronto. Integration of MNCH Services with Primary Care: A review of challenges and opportunities. Center for Health Market Innovations. Washington, DC: Results for Development, 2018.

Heinkel, Luke, Christina Synowiec, and Daniel Plaut. “Project Literacy: Qualitative Midline Evaluation.” Report submitted to Pearson. Washington, DC: Results for Development, June 30, 2017.

Bhattacharyya, O., Wu, D., Mossman, K. et al. Criteria to assess potential reverse innovations: opportunities for shared learning between high- and low-income countriesGlobal Health 13, 4 (2017).

Ettenger, Allison and Synowiec, Christina. The Center for Health Market Innovations. Adapting What Works in Primary Care. Washington, DC: Results for Development, 2016.

Synowiec, Christina. Study on the role of informal providers in health care delivery. Center for Health Market Innovations. Washington, DC: Results for Development: 2015.

Donika, Dimovska, Synowiec, C, et al. with the Center for Health Market Innovations. Highlights: Findings from 2015. Results for Development Institute, Washington, D.C., 2015.

Krubiner, C., Salmon, M., Synowiec, C., Lagomarsino, G. 2015. Investing in Nursing and Enterprise: Empowering women and strengthening health systems – A Landscaping Study of Innovations in Low and Middle Income Countries. Nursing Outlook.

Donika, Dimovska, Synowiec, C, et al. with the Center for Health Market Innovations. Highlights: Findings from 2014. Results for Development Institute, Washington, D.C., 2014.

Synowiec, Christina, in partnership with the University of Toronto. Innovations in Privately Delivered Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health: Exploring the evidence behind emerging practices. The Center for Health Market Innovations. Washington, DC: Results for Development, 2014.

Synowiec, Christina, in partnership with the University of Toronto. Innovations in Tuberculosis Care: Exploring the evidence behind emerging practices in low- and middle-income countries. The Center for Health Market Innovations. Washington, DC: Results for Development, 2014.

Synowiec, Christina and Ellen Carey. Setting the Stage to Measure Impact in Health. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 7 April 2014.

Synowiec, Christina. “Just How Healthy Are Impact Investments in Health?: Building a new set of metrics to evaluate health firms, and how you can shape them.” Next Billion, 2013.

Lewis, T., Synowiec, C., Lagomarsino, G., Schweitzer, J. 2012. E-health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from the Center for Health Market Innovations. Bull World Health Organ 90: 332-340. (50 Citations)

Schweitzer, Julian and Synowiec, Christina. The Economics of eHealth and mHealthJournal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, Volume 17 (May 2012) – Issue sup 1.

Next-Generation Tumor Site Strategy, Volume I, Achieving Best-in-Class Clinical Performance Through Principled Program Development, Research Report, January 11, 2010.

Next-Generation Tumor Site Strategy Vol. II, Developing Site-Specific Centers of Excellence, Research Report, March 23, 2010.

Global & Regional Initiatives

R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing initiatives that connect implementers, experts and funders across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice.