Watching the Bottom Line Abroad

At the end of January, Catherine Schenck-Yglesias left her high-rise home in Baltimore for the rocky hills of Afghanistan. Upon landing at the tiny, fly-infested Kabul airport, she strapped on a bullet-proof vest and found the armored car that would escort her to the American embassy. "When you work for the government, you're only allowed to go where they think you'll be safe," she says.Good thing. As a senior health informatics adviser for the office of HIV/AIDS at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Schenck-Yglesias travels all over the world making sure USAID's money is being used wisely. Last year alone she traveled to Honduras, Thailand, Mozambique, South Africa, Niger twice, Tanzania twice, and Switzerland three times. This year, after her trip to Afghanistan, she went to an AIDS conference in Rwanda, and is slated to see Tanzania and Zambia as well.Read more at...Johns Hopkins Magazine, September 2007.