Laura Ferguson, PhD

Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Spatial Sciences

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Overview

Laura Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Program on Global Health & Human Rights and the Director of Research at the Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. She is also on the faculty of USC Dornsife’s Spatial Sciences Institute and she is an Associate Research Professor at Amref International University in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Ferguson earned her MSc in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and her PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her work focuses on understanding and addressing health system, structural and societal factors affecting health, and developing the evidence base of how attention to human rights can improve health outcomes.

Dr. Ferguson has spent extended periods of time in low-income countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, collaborating with local partners to design and manage research and programs to tackle a broad range of issues including HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and child health.

Dr. Ferguson serves on a range of expert advisory groups to the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. She is also an Associate Editor for Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters and the American Journal of Public Health.

Publications

  • The continuing fight for abortion rights: taking stock of the evidence. Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2024 Dec; 32(1):2433822.. View in PubMed
  • Advocating for Paid Maternity Leave and Workplace Lactation Policy Reform and Implementation: Lessons Learned From Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam. Matern Child Nutr. 2025 04; 21(2):e13784.. View in PubMed
  • Next-generation biomarkers for alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment: A critical review. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2025 Jan; 49(1):5-24.. View in PubMed
  • Understanding the Post-Dobbs Landscape for Abortion Care in the United States. Am J Public Health. 2024 10; 114(10):994-996.. View in PubMed
  • Sexual and reproductive health and rights in Palestine – securing spaces to speak out. Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2024 Dec; 32(1):2397956.. View in PubMed
  • Are Rights-Based Services Important? An Adolescent PrEP Demonstration Project in Brazil. Health Hum Rights. 2024 Jun; 26(1):71-86.. View in PubMed
  • Laws governing access to sexual health services and information: contents, protections, and restrictions. Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2024 Dec; 32(1):2336770.. View in PubMed
  • Why a good law is not always good enough: a global review of restrictions to supportive laws for sexual and reproductive health and rights. BMJ Glob Health. 2024 02 16; 9(2).. View in PubMed
  • Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response on access to and utilization of reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health services in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2024; 4(1):e0002740.. View in PubMed
  • The ubiquity of ‘self-care’ in health: Why specificity matters. Glob Public Health. 2024 01; 19(1):2296970.. View in PubMed