The first one and a half hours of this morning we finished up all three of our projects– what a relief! We then had four meetings that were relatively back-to-back. First on the schedule was Mr. Bachman and Ms. Cooke, both in the department of procurement. They brought us all kinds of assorted knick-knacks of yo-yos, journals, pens, and stress toys to first discuss all varieties of purchases they make for the company from tchotchkes to cars. They write hundreds of proposals to different organizations, and when chosen, they distribute funding and select which items to purchase. Next we met with former Cary Academy student Hannah Goetz, a Contraceptive Technology Innovation Department intern. She began her college years at Johns Hopkins and transferred to UNC, while discovering her love for public health. She is about to continue working for FHI in Washington DC! Next we met with Ms. Lawton about her work in Behavioral, Epidemiological, and Clinical Sciences with her last research project. She travelled along with a few other FHI employees to understand what aspects of contraception are most favorable along with new ideas altogether for contraception. For a fairly simple objective, it required lots of effort– they needed translators, photographers, interviewers, and more. FHI also teamed up with another company to take their research and to convert it into beautiful presentations and booklets. One particularly interesting booklet described new ideas women had for contraception as well as features that may or may not be preferable: can be purchased from a mobile cart vendor, can be worn like a bracelet, can have no side-effects, can be made purposefully with no previous stigma, etc. Finally we met with Ms. Groves about her work in the Regulatory Affairs Department.
A collage of some pages from the booklet.