Speaker

Dr Karen Grépin

Associate Professor, School of Public Health

The University of Hong Kong

Karen A. Grépin was appointed as an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong in 2020.  Previously, she was the Canada Research Chair in Global Health Policy and Evaluation at Wilfrid Laurier University and an Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at New York University. She has a Ph.D. in Health Policy (economics) from Harvard University, an S.M. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a B.Sc. in Immunology from McGill University in Canada.

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Dr. Grépin's research focuses on institutional factors affecting the demand and supply of health services, the politics and effectiveness of development assistance for health, and the role of routine health information systems in strengthening health systems. Her research has been published in leading medical and public health journals.

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Dr. Grépin is recruiting qualified graduate and undergraduate students with interests in conducting research at the intersection of economics and health systems and health policy issues globally. She can be followed on Twitter at @KarenGrepin.

Reading list for Dr. Grépin's talk:

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Abramowitz, S., Hipgrave, D., Witchard, A., Heymann, D. (2018). Lessons from the West Africa Ebola Epidemic: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological and Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities. The Journal of infectious diseases

https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy387

Kapiriri, L., LaRose, L. (2018). Priority setting for disease outbreaks in Uganda: A case study evaluating the process Global Public Health 14(2), 241-253. 

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2018.1498532

Moon, S., Leigh, J., Woskie, L., Checchi, F., Dzau, V., Fallah, M., Fitzgerald, G., Garrett, L., Gostin, L., Heymann, D., Katz, R., Kickbusch, I., Morrison, J., Piot, P., Sands, P., Sridhar, D., Jha, A. (2017). Post-Ebola reforms: ample analysis, inadequate action. BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 356(), j280. 

https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j280

Wenham, C., Smith, J., Morgan, R., Group, G. (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak The Lancet

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30526-2

Moderator

Dr Mellissa Withers

Associate Professor, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California and 

Director, APRU Global Health Program 

Mellissa Withers, Ph.D., MHS is an Associate Professor at thin the Department of Preventive Medicine. She is based at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. She also is also Director of the Global Health Program of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a non-profit network of more than 50 leading universities in the region. She received a Ph.D. from the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health with a minor in cultural anthropology. She also earned a Master’s in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BA in international development from UC Berkeley. Her research interests lie in community participatory research, gender-based violence, and global sexual and reproductive health. Dr. Withers is the editor of two books: Global Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health Across the Lifecourse, and Global Health Leadership: Case Studies from the Asia-Pacific. She also writes a blog on human trafficking titled Modern-Day Slavery for Psychology Today.