In the last year, the College of Engineering has highlighted the people within LASER PULSE (LP) who keep the wheels of progress, change, and hope turning in underprivileged countries. Below is a Q&A that highlights the work and viewpoints of the staff within this Purdue-based consortium. Common among their answers is LASER PULSE’s creation of the Embedded Research Translation (ERT) model, which bridges researchers, thought leaders, innovators, and scientists with on-the-ground practitioners to address development challenges with solutions that are more readily adapted and applied. Read on for their reflections on the work they and the consortium as a whole conduct.

Jeff Goecker

Communications Specialist

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“I have almost 20 years of communications experience at Purdue. After obtaining my master’s degree from Purdue in 2006, I worked for the Birck Nanotechnology Center, College of Education, and Purdue Graduate School in various communication roles.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“The variety of not only the portfolio of research projects, but the day-to-day tasks keep me on my toes. Every day is something different. I could be working on building a mini research hub for a project team on the website one day and focusing on branding standards and building templates for teams to use the next. Visiting other countries is exciting and a great opportunity to utilize various communication methods to showcase development research in action.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“LASER PULSE helps to provide a mechanism for USAID’s transformative objective. With a membership base of over 3,500 people in 86 countries, we work with USAID to identify research needs for critical development challenges and strengthen capacity of researcher-practitioner teams to co-design solutions that translate into policy and practice. Through these avenues along with other core components such as Embedded Research Translation (ERT) and Gender Integration, LASER PULSE strengthens USAID’s development assistance to help partner countries on their own development journey to self-reliance. Awarded project teams are working in a variety of areas such as agriculture and food security, water and sanitation, education, and human rights.”

What memorable experience(s) come to mind when you think about your LP role?

“Less than a month after starting with LASER PULSE, I was on a plane to Uganda. There, I had the responsibility of providing photo and video coverage for the South Sudan Impact Evaluation project, which was looking at psychosocial support on children’s well-being, literacy, and math outcomes of the Integrated Essential Emergency Education Program. It was a great way to get my feet wet, but it also opened my eyes to the breadth of what LASER PULSE’s capabilities and goals were attempting to accomplish. Since that initial trip, I have worked with my colleagues to showcase our 47 projects in 19 countries, establish online courses for training members in topics such as gender integration and ERT (among others), construct a member database for collaboration opportunities, and create an online research hub that displays information for the individual LASER PULSE projects and their research outputs. None of the aforementioned could have been achieved without the strong, positive encouragement and navigation from our (female-centric) leadership team.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“It takes a tremendous amount of time and resources to build a flourishing, sustainable network. That said, I think LASER PULSE has provided all the necessary tools to achieving its goal – using the capacity of Higher Education Institutions in creating evidence toward solving global development challenges.”

Leulsegged Kasa

Research Project Manager

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“I was a research analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). I supported research and evaluation activities for the Africa RISING program, which is funded by USAID as part of the Feed the Future initiative. IFPRI provides policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“LP's mission of delivering practical, research-driven solutions to global development challenges resonates with my professional goals. The program’s accessible and empowering leadership, emphasis on cultural diversity and supportive staff, and focus on managing diverse research projects across sectors present opportunities for personal and professional growth.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“I firmly believe that ERT empowers researchers and development practitioners to deliver practical, research-driven solutions to global development challenges. Additionally, LP's emphasis on capacity-strengthening through collaborative research, dissemination, high-quality training courses, and research for development workshops is commendable. The organization's focus on co-designing and implementing projects collaboratively fosters knowledge sharing, while also promoting local ownership and sustainability.”

Can you share a positive experience you've had while in your LP role?

“I had the opportunity to manage a buy-in project funded by USAID, focusing on Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In addition to providing administrative support, I actively participated in conducting a secondary data analysis on poverty and malnutrition. I was thrilled to learn that our research reports were shared as a key resource in the Request for Applications (RFA) for the FY 2023 DRC RFSA solicitation. Witnessing the direct use of our research outputs in informing the targeting and design strategy for multi-year resilience food and nutrition security programming in the DRC was truly rewarding. This experience has reinforced my deep appreciation for the value of evidence generation and the translation of research into practical solutions. I am incredibly grateful to have been a part of this process and to have contributed to positive change in the field of global development.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“Researcher-practitioner collaboration facilitates research translation into practice. I also have noticed the potential of LP’s ERT model as a planning, implementation, and monitoring framework for research translation. Through diverse interactions, I've witnessed the transformative impact of collective efforts. Ongoing learning and adaptation are essential components in this process.”

Naomi Levine

Scientific Research Manager

What was your background prior to joining LP?
“Careerwise, much of my work has been in local development and grassroots community organizing across sectors like maternal-child health, addiction and recovery, and prison abolition. I’ve also worked in higher education retention, curriculum (re)design, teaching, and student advocacy. My educational background is in women’s studies, archaeology, applied anthropology, and communication.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“I appreciate the genuine care that everyone has for the program and for projects we work with. There is a lot of personality and heart to the LASER PULSE approach, which speaks to what I’ve loved about the community work I’ve been part of in the past.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“Wicked problems that harm our communities are not singular or limited in their tactics, and neither should our approaches to understanding and mitigating them. I think the good that LASER does is in helping partners —who are from HEIs, NGOs, governments, and practitioner organizations — learn how to collaboratively take on the challenges of applied, multidisciplinary, and mixed methods research for the benefit of the communities they are working with.”

Do you have any memorable experiences that come to mind when you think about your role with LASER?

“I started with LASER as a graduate research assistant when I was working on my PhD at Purdue. So far, the most memorable experience for me has been my trip to Thailand to visit some of our colleagues from a project who are based in Bangkok. I had never flown internationally as an adult. I had the best time meeting with our colleagues, who made sure I got as much of a well-rounded taste of Thailand as I could! In my new role within LASER as a post-grad, I’m looking forward to continuing to support researchers around the world.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“During my time as a research assistant with a couple of our projects, I learned a lot about the possibilities for building a warm and collaborative environment while working virtually with collaborators across multiple time zones. Learning this has been helpful as I’ve entered my new role within LASER.”

Ross Meyers

Research Project Manager

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“I like to work where social change, culture, and development come together. Before joining LASER, I worked as a community development consultant and trainer in China and also ran a small business there for a decade; it employed women from an underserved minority people group. I've also done NGO administration.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“I enjoy the way that LASER’s teams make on-the-ground projects more effective, with research and analysis that sharpen what different development actors do. For example, we’re helping raise the quality of education projects in East Africa, and our researchers there are gathering the real stories and real statistics that help leaders make better plans.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“I’ve lately been thinking about the successes and challenges we’ve had growing the abilities of researchers around the world. We often work with academics in the developing world and provide a suite of services that helps them do quality research, author English-language publications, and do advocacy work. We also walk alongside USAID missions as they relate to these researchers. Seeing researchers empowered and moved forward in their careers is encouraging.”

Can you share a positive experience you've had while in your LP role?

“I work with a project in Northern Iraq that helps revitalize some of the crops that ISIS destroyed. These crops were often important to the faith practices of different people groups in the region. In Uganda, I work with a project helping underprivileged minorities revitalize their language and fight human trafficking. In my past work experience, I worked with an NGO that helped revitalize dying languages, so this theme continues throughout my career, one of meeting people where they are, celebrating their ethnic identity, and crafting development initiatives around it.”

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned while working with LP?

“One of our projects monitors an education program that helps displaced and out-of-school kids receive education. I’ve been struck by how much parents yearn for their children to receive a quality education, and the effort they’ll give to help their children recover lost years. That desire truly is universal.”

Frederick Rossi

Knowledge Management and Performance Monitoring Specialist, representing the University of Notre Dame

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“I worked as a natural resource economist for the University of Florida, following a nearly five-year stint working on an agricultural productivity improvement project with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Bangladesh.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“My colleagues.  Also, the idea that LASER itself is experimental in the sense that USAID is attempting to improve research for development in various ways.  LASER focuses on linking researchers with development practitioners to increase the likelihood that generated research is both relevant and accessible to those who need it.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“We hope to change the paradigm regarding how academic research for development is conducted. The ERT (Embedded Research Translation) model is the mechanism for doing so; it provides a structure and guide for creating viable partnerships, as well as a robust process for co-creation or project research objectives, and the translation of research that is ultimately produced.  We have seen good results so far.”

Can you share a positive experience you've had while in your LP role?

“I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting many wonderful people through LASER —colleagues at Notre Dame, and from all of the other consortium partners that comprise LASER. I have also gained a good deal of experience in various aspects of monitoring and evaluation that I previously lacked.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“The awesome power of great teamwork.”

Ex-Purdue LASER PULSE staff

Pamela McClure

Research Project Manager

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“My prior work at Purdue was with the National Science Foundation’s NEES (Network for Earthquake Engineers Simulation) grant and the USAID Borlaug Fellows Grant in coordinator positions.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“The research funded by LASER is vast, from air and water pollution to social and mental health awareness. Because our research is funded worldwide, I get to interact with researchers from Vietnam, Africa, Colombia, as well as the United States.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“My work at LASER is primarily with the core awards, which fund research teams in specific areas. Oftentimes, these researchers are early-career and do not have experience in securing funds for their work. LASER provides the guidance needed for them to ‘grow’ within their research capabilities to secure future funding. For the research teams that are well-versed in securing funding, having LASER PULSE manage their award frees up their time to do the research.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“All researchers are very passionate about their work and are eager to share their work with others. LASER PULSE’s network of researchers allows that to happen on a very broad basis.”

Marcy Wilson

Operations Manager

What was your background prior to joining LP?

“I started at Purdue in 2009 as a secretary IV, and I have continued to move up since then. I received my bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in project management in February 2023 from Purdue University Global.”

Why do you enjoy working with LP?

“I have met people from around the world and now have long-lasting friendships with some of them. I also love that LP is trying to make the world a better place for everyone.”

Please explain your thoughts on the good that LP does.

“LP is brining safety, personal empowerment, and pride to people around the world. LP is giving new researchers the chance to do research that they feel strongly about and helping their countries at the same time. Researchers also are given the chance to help change or improve situations that they are passionate about in their countries.”

Can you share a positive experience you've had while in your LP role?

“Before COVID hit, I traveled to Uganda twice and was able to see what part of that country looks like. In Kampala, there are no sidewalks for people to walk safely on, and most of the roads are dirt. Traffic can be so bad! My driver, Israel, and I sat in traffic for 1.5 hours without air conditioning to travel one mile. Israel and I became lifelong friends. I also have the pleasure to work with five researchers from Minority Serving Institutions. Hearing about the passion they have for their work is amazing. The world needs more passionate researchers and more passionate donors to help people throughout the world have opportunities that we take for granted.”

What is the most significant thing you've learned while working with LP?

“It takes the ability to constantly adapt, grow, pivot, and change to ensure that we do the work that is needed to help people around the world.”

About LASER PULSE

In 2018, Purdue University was selected by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to co-create research-driven solutions for developing countries via LASER PULSE — the Long-term Assistance and Services for Research (LASER) Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine (PULSE). This five-year, $70 million program, funded by USAID’s Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub, is one of the largest single research awards to the Purdue College of Engineering. Purdue leads a global consortium of university and nongovernmental partners that supports USAID as it navigates developmental changes, ultimately leading to societal, environmental, educational, and agricultural improvements in partner countries around the world.