Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Lisa McHugh is a perinatal and infectious diseases epidemiologist at the UQ School of Public Health (SPH). She is an Emerging Leader (EL1) NHMRC post-doctoral Senior Research Fellow and lead investigator of her 5-year Investigator Grant called 'VaxiMums'. The 'VaxiMums' program is evaluating maternal vaccination programs, pregnancy loss, and respiratory infections such as influenza, pertussis, COVID-19 and RSV. Lisa is currently the Deputy Director of Higher Dergree Research, and the Academic Integrity Officer for SPH. She is engaged in the recently developed Mentoring Program, and is the primary advisor of 3 PhD students.
Before completing her PhD in 2019, Lisa completed a Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology (MAE prgram) at the ANU. Lisa was an early career research Fellow in the NHMRC funded APPRISE Centre for Research Excellence, that investigated the impact of influenza and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccinations recommended in pregnant First Nations women, and identifyed key factors affecting their uptake in pregnancy. Lisa was also chief-investigator on a multi-jurisdictional NHMRC funded project called 'Links2HealthierBubs' which created the largest linked cohort of individual mother-infant pairs to investigate the uptake, safety and effectiveness of influenza and pertussis vaccines, and the geographical, ethnic and socio-economic influences of vaccine uptake. Lisa was a co-investigator on a NHMRC funded COVID-19 Real-time Information System for Preparedness and Epidemic Response (CRISPER) project, which developed an interactive dashboard that mapped COVID-19 cases, widely utilised by multiple state and terrirory public health users.
Lisa's research experience and interests include clinical midwifery, First Nations health, infectious diseases, pregnancy and birth outcomes, and maternal vaccination. She has been a member of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) since 2014, a member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association (AEA) since 2013, and is currently an Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
