Hello! I'm Mona
I am a charismatic team player ready to collaborate with leaders and teammates to identify strategic and innovative approaches to problem-solving and project completion. I understand and value the importance of maintaining a positive work environment and supporting teammates when possible, as well as maintaining an open mindset to understand various backgrounds and demonstrate empathy when needed. I am a self-motivated and hard-working individual, able to quickly acquire new skills on-the-go and transfer skills between tasks.​ My experience and skills include team management, both systematic and non-systematic research, jurisdictional scans, project and data analysis using a multitude of computer software, and organization of formal presentations.
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Mona Challa
Master of Public Administration
School of Public Administration, Dalhousie University
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Phone:
(902) 403-7992
Email:
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EXPERIENCE
Aug 2021 - Present
Policy Analyst
Public Health Agency of Canada
Contributed to Strategic Policy Branch’s Knowledge Mobilization & Integration Team’s policy development by supporting leadership and senior policy analysts collect information and complete key deliverables that support the Agency’s renewal strategy.
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Create written briefings and issue notes under tight deadlines aimed at analyzing current events related to public health and critically identified policy needs of branches across the Agency. As well as produce both high-level and detailed meet notes to support the Agency’s Medium Term Planning.
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Provide management with verbal debriefs on important lessons learned findings consolidated from numerous key public health reports using interactive infographics, Excel, or PowerPoint to illustrate and help articulate these findings.
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Support multiple stages of budget and memorandum proposals, quickly taking on more responsibility when needed to support proposal leads and help meet short timelines. Often involves communicating and collaborating across branches at the Agency and often leading small meetings with branches while leads were addressing other priorities.
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Lead weekly collaborative learning sessions to reflect the interests, professional development, and language learning needs of the team, as well as ensure these sessions are engaging in order to stimulate active discussion.
Apr 2021 - Aug 2021
Policy Analyst
NOVA SCOTIA DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION & EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Established a comprehensive understanding of early childhood development regulations in Nova Scotia by supporting reporting and research processes within the Early Childhood Development Research & Partnerships team.
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Conducted a substantial jurisdictional scan of various elements of pre-primary programs across Canada to support Nova Scotia’s pre-primary regulations. This involved reviewing a number of regulatory and legislative documents.
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Collected financial and quantitative data from key contacts within the branch to populated quarterly budget reports.
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Supported management by reviewing proposal documents and providing a critical lens to play a challenge function to help improve the deliverability and fluency of these proposals.
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Contributed to the creation of virtual learning modules for early childhood educators in Nova Scotia by helping create visually appealing and easy-to-read PowerPoints and providing voiceover for these modules.
Apr 2020 - Aug 2020
Policy Intern
NOVA SCOTIA DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Gained comprehensive understanding of physician remuneration models and incentives in Nova Scotia by supporting senior leadership within the Physician Services branch with thorough research reviews and jurisdictional scans.
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Reproduced research finds in the form of PowerPoint Presentations which were later used in department briefings.
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Created reader-friendly infographics to consolidate branch tasks and accomplishments for stakeholders. Organization of these graphics prompted other teams to request similar infographics to illustrate their achievements.
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Recorded clear meeting summary notes for distribution to meeting attendees and produced project summary sheets for distribution to clients and stakeholders.
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Provided innovative and tech-driven solutions to simplify team communications and data/information storage, making it easier for colleagues to organize email correspondences by project.
Jan 2020 - Apr 2020 / Jan 2021 - Apr 2021
Medical Sciences CAPSTONE Teaching Assistant
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Supported the Assistant Dean of the Dalhousie Medical Sciences Program in ensuring student engagement through the use of peer-review software Aropa for peer-to-peer evaluations and feedback.
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Communicated with students in a professional manner to guide them through the process of using the Aropa software. This ensured peer evaluations were completed on time and correctly.
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Responded to student questions and/or concerns on a timely basis. As a result, student presentations were always completed and submitted on time.
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Responsible to troubleshoot software issues, including preparation of contingency planning. This ensured that student presentations were presented as scheduled with no interruptions.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Jun 2018 - Apr 2019
Undergraduate Research Student
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Completed a Medical Sciences Directed Research project within the Department of Pathology at Dalhousie University focusing on "Determining the effects of the folate-coupled enzyme MTHFD2 on DNA methylation in breast cancer". The project was selected for presentation at Dalhousie affiliated research conferences during poster symposiums.
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Managed experimental set-up, data collection, data analysis, and data reporting.
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Studied and performed statistical analysis of data using various computer software such as Microsoft Excel, GraphPad, and Bio-Rad GenEx PCR analysis software.
Jan 2015 - Apr 2019
Undergraduate Research Student
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Contributed to research looking at proprioceptive short-term memory at the Dalhousie Early Social Development Lab part of the Department of Psychology. The project was presented at a research poster symposium at Dalhousie University.
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Managed a team of four other first-year students and was the point of contact for the project supervisor.
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Managed experimental set-up, data collection, data analysis, and data reporting.
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Professionally communicated with experiment participants to ensure they were comfortable during the experiment.
EDUCATION
2019 - 2021
Master's Degree
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Master of Public Administration
School of Public Asministration
2015 - 2019
Bachelor's Degree
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
BSc, Medical Sciences
Faculties of Medicine & Science
2012 - 2015
High School Diploma
HALIFAX WEST HIGH SCHOOL
International Baccalaureate Program
VOLUNTEER
SKILLS
Microsoft Excel - Advanced
Microsoft Word - Advanced
Microsoft Powerpoint - Advanced
Adobe - Proficient
GBA+ Certified (soon)
French (In Training)
FEATURES
DALHOUSIE GRADUATE STUDIES
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WE ARE DAL
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HEAL
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Respect for Democracy
Respect for People
Integrity
Excellence