Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Lisa McHugh is a perinatal and infectious diseases epidemiologist at the UQ School of Public Health (SPH). A Level C Senior Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leader (EL1) Investigator Grant recipient, Lisa leads her own small team of researchers through her 5-year program ‘VaxiMums’, which is evaluating the uptake, effectiveness and equity of maternal vaccinations and respiratory infections.
Lisa is currently a CI on an Industry funded national study evaluating RSV hospitalisations in children <5yrs of age. She contributes her expertise from existing epidemiological RSV research.
She is a CI on a project with Qld Health looking at the acceptability of new RSV strategies among parents.
Lisa is currently leading a pilot project investigating pregnancy loss after receiving influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations in early pregnancy-the first study of its kind in Australia, and one of only a few internationally. Lisa’s extensive collaborations involve Primary Health Care Networks, First Nations midwives, maternal and child health nurse immunisers, consumers, Queensland Health, and national and international experts in the field.
Lisa has supervised 3 MEpi students to completion-all with the highest GPA of 7. She is currently the primary advisor of 2 PhD students, 2 MEpi students and a MBiostats student.
Projects currently being investigated by her and her students include:
Effectiveness of influenza, pertussis & COVID vaccinations in pregnancy against adverse maternal-infant outcomes
RSV hospitalisations among First Nations children aged <2yrs (Lisa leading thie collaboration with UQCCR)
Adverse birth outcomes among NT mother-infant pairs after maternal vaccinations
Pertussis vaccine effectiveness among preterm infants
Vaccine failures after influenza + pertussis vaccination in pregnancy
Lisa is the Academic Integrity Officer for SPH, and mentors 2 academics in the SPH Mentoring Program. Her research expertise 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 since 2014, and Immunisation Special Interest Group working group member, contributing to the latest Immunisation Policy Review (2026).
Lisa is also member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association and Editor for the Aust and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
She reviews for NHMRC grant applications.
When not working Lisa can be found (or not found) trail running, hiking in the middle of nowhere and swimming.
