Dr Carla Pezzulo
Carla is a Statistical Consultant in social statistics and demography and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. As a Senior Research Fellow at WorldPop for 10 years from 2013 she was also technical lead of the Geo-demography and Social Statistics group. Dr Pezzulo continues to lead statistical and demographic projects at WorldPop.
She is an expert in analysis of household survey data and construction of demographic, health and socio-economic indicators in low- and middle-income countries, including all geographic and spatial aspects of survey data. During her time at WorldPop, Carla has worked extensively on investigating, constructing and analysing demographic, health and socio-economic indicators derived from household survey data in low- and middle-income regions.
Carla focuses on several aspects of population characteristics including child mortality and maternal health, fertility, poverty, school attendance and literacy, nutrition, and demographics. She leads social science aspects of research from producing indicators, analysing all data produced and ensuring their integrity, to enabling the construction of high-resolution maps using household survey indicators.
Carla is lead author and co-author on many high impact journal articles. In recent studies, she explored the geographic patterns of demographic aspects of the population such as fertility rates and age structures. She has also worked extensively on school attendance and accessibility and investigated the determinants of out-of-school youth of secondary school age in low- and middle-income countries.
Carla has led and co-led several grants and projects including those funded by USAID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank, and strengthened collaborations with external partners. She is currently leading a project on constructing an online interactive geospatial health and development indicator atlas for selected low-and-middle income countries.
Carla has a PhD in International Cooperation and Development. In her thesis she analysed the geographic and socioeconomic determinants of accessing health care facilities by young women in Kenya, using multilevel modelling techniques. During her studies she gained a multidisciplinary profile ranging from development economics, demography and political science and international cooperation. Carla also conducted field research in Kenya, where she interviewed young women in rural areas and urban slums on reproductive behaviours.
