My background is in reproductive health, gender-based violence, and research and evaluation with a focus on qualitative methods.
After completing my Masters of Public Health in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice at the University of Washington (2011), I joined the Policy & Research Group, where I evaluated programmes addressing homelessness, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and reproductive health in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. My PhD research at LSHTM (2024) focused on the role of social and gender norms in the prevention of violence in young people's dating and relationships and on the measurement of these norms.
Before joining LSHTM, I worked in Ethiopia as an Allan Rosenfield Global Health Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Based in the HIV Prevention Branch, I co-led the qualitative fieldwork for a study of HIV risk among truck drivers and female sex workers (FSWs). I also worked with clinics that serve FSWs, assessing the clinics' needs for violence prevention and response and supporting the development of a new electronic medical record and surveillance system.
Other past work includes research on racial disparities in U.S. veterans' healthcare and a study of relationships between domestic violence and maternal and birth outcomes in East Timor.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I tutor and supervise theses for MSc Public Health students and co-organise the Applied Communicable Disease Control module, which uses a student-led "problem-based learning" approach.
Research
My areas of research interest broadly include social and gender norms, violence, adolescent health, LGBTQ+ health and sexual and reproductive health.
My current work focuses on two projects: Positive Choices is a randomised controlled trial of a relationships and sex education programme in UK secondary schools. The CANVAS study explores how social norms and attitudes towards violent experiences in childhood affect the relationships between violence against children and health, education, labour and biomarker outcomes.
Past work includes the SACHA Study, a large, mixed-methods study that draws on international evidence to inform the reconfiguration of abortion provision in the UK. Other past projects include a process evaluation of a policy to restrict the advertisement of high fat, sugar and salt products; and systematic reviews in the areas of sex workers' health, e-Health interventions to improve health among men who have sex with men, and social norms, attitudes and beliefs underlying child sexual exploitation.
Selected Publications
