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

  • When Ethics and the Law Collide: A Multicenter Demonstration Cohort Study of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Provision to Adolescent Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Women in Brazil. J Adolesc Health. 2023 12; 73(6S):S11-S18.. View in PubMed
  • A review of place-related contextual factors in syndemics research. Health Place. 2023 09; 83:103084.. View in PubMed
  • Systematic review and quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis of interventions to address HIV-related stigma and discrimination. AIDS. 2023 11 01; 37(13):1919-1939.. View in PubMed
  • Measuring Geographic Access to Transgender Hormone Therapy in Texas: A Three-step Floating Catchment Area Analysis. Spat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol. 2023 06; 45:100585.. View in PubMed
  • Health Justice in the Context of Health and Human Rights. Am J Public Health. 2023 02; 113(2):182-184.. View in PubMed
  • Determinants of Bladder Care at Night in a Subacute Ward for Aged Patients: An Observational Study. J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs. 2024 Mar-Apr 01; 51(2):146-151.. View in PubMed
  • Leaving No One Behind: Human Rights and Gender as Critical Frameworks for U=U. Health Hum Rights. 2022 Dec; 24(2):1-11.. View in PubMed
  • “I Can’t Take This Shitty Quarantine Anymore”: Sexual Behavior and PrEP Use Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Arch Sex Behav. 2023 02; 52(2):689-702.. View in PubMed
  • Frameworks and measures for HIV-related internalized stigma, stigma and discrimination in healthcare and in laws and policies: a systematic review. J Int AIDS Soc. 2022 07; 25.. View in PubMed
  • Construction and validation of a spatial database of providers of transgender hormone therapy in the US. Soc Sci Med. 2022 06; 303:115014.. View in PubMed