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

  • Provider-initiated testing and counselling programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of their operational implementation. AIDS. 2013 Feb 20; 27(4):617-26.. View in PubMed
  • The pregnancy decisions of HIV-positive women: the state of knowledge and way forward. Reprod Health Matters. 2012 Dec; 20(39 Suppl):119-40.. View in PubMed
  • Patient attrition between diagnosis with HIV in pregnancy-related services and long-term HIV care and treatment services in Kenya: a retrospective study. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2012 Jul 01; 60(3):e90-7.. View in PubMed
  • Linking women who test HIV-positive in pregnancy-related services to long-term HIV care and treatment services: a systematic review. Trop Med Int Health. 2012 May; 17(5):564-80.. View in PubMed
  • Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV: assessing the accuracy of routinely collected data on maternal antiretroviral prophylaxis coverage in Kenya. Sex Transm Infect. 2012 Mar; 88(2):120-4.. View in PubMed
  • Human rights in health systems frameworks: what is there, what is missing and why does it matter? Glob Public Health. 2012; 7(4):337-51. Gruskin S , Ahmed S, Bogecho D, Ferguson L , Hanefeld J, Maccar . View in PubMed
  • ‘Rights-based approaches’ to health policies and programs: articulations, ambiguities, and assessment. J Public Health Policy. 2010 Jul; 31(2):129-45.. View in PubMed
  • Increasing civil society participation in the national HIV response: the role of UNGASS reporting. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2009 Dec; 52.. View in PubMed
  • Human rights in the global response to HIV: findings from the 2008 United Nations General Assembly Special Session Reports. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2009 Dec; 52.. View in PubMed
  • Government regulation of sex and sexuality: in their own words. Reprod Health Matters. 2009 Nov; 17(34):108-18.. View in PubMed