Nicole Santos, PhD, MS currently serves as a Research and Program Manager for the Preterm Birth Initiative East Africa's (PTBi EA) Discovery portfolio. She oversaw RFP dissemination, external review processes, project selection, sub-award processing, and post-award management for researchers at UCSF and various institutions in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. She also contributes to various PTBi EA projects that include intervention and implementation research related to maternal and neonatal risk factors for adverse outcomes. Dr. Santos concurrently serves as an Associate Director for PTBi’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program, where she oversees program administration, trainee recruitment and reporting. Collectively, her work integrates capacity strengthening for early career investigators, particularly those in low-resource settings.