The art and science of listening

(Lina) Finda first learned about the potential of malaria-free mosquitoes in 2017, at the beginning of her PhD in public health.

“My thought was, oh my God, we might eliminate this disease in my lifetime,” she says.

All the scientists in the room with Finda were equally impressed and excited. But she knew this kind of idea would never leave a lab if there wasn’t community trust and buy-in.

So she asked herself a question: “How might other people react to this?” She dedicated the rest of her career to understanding the answer.

Finda is a 2010 WWU graduate in biochemistry.