Laura Ferguson | USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health

Laura Ferguson is an associate professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California, the director of the Program on Global Health & Human Rights and the director of research at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health.

Her research focuses on understanding and addressing health system and societal factors affecting health and the uptake of health services as well as developing the evidence base of how attention to human rights can improve health outcomes. She is interested in innovative methodologies to better understand how societal-level interventions can improve health, and she has carried out many large-scale evaluations with this aim. She collaborates with a range of United Nations agencies as well as foundations, universities and non-governmental organizations in different countries. She has spent extended periods of time living and working in low-income countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work focuses primarily on HIV, sexual and reproductive health and child health.

She is also an associate editor for Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters and the American Journal of Public Health.

Laura Ferguson earned her SM in population and international health from the Harvard University School of Public Health and her PhD from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Recent Publications:

Articles and Chapters

Emoto S, Ferguson L, Baezconde-Garbanati L, Hu H, Samari G, Gruskin S. “Promoting More Equitable Global Health Research, Education, and Community Partnerships: The Efforts of One US-Based Academic Institution,” Annals of Global Health (2025).
Ferguson L, “Global Health and Human Rights in AJPH,” American Journal of Public Health (2025).
Agaba, C, Ferguson L, Emoto S, Haumba, M, Kizito, D, Kolchina, M, Lutwama, J. J. “Gender and Exposure Pathways to Zoonotic Infections in Communities at the Interface of Wildlife Conservation Areas of Uganda: A Qualitative Study,” Global Public Health (2025).
Diamond C, Ferguson L, Gruskin S. “Experiential Learning in Global Health: Engaging with Multilateral Institutions in an Age of Rights Regression,” American Journal of Law & Medicine (2025).
Anderson, M, McGowan, J, Escobar-DeMarco, J, Bose, S, Frongillo, E.A, Ferguson, L. “Advocating for Paid Maternity Leave and Workplace Lactation Policy Reform and Implementation: Lessons Learned From Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam,” Maternal & Child Nutrition (2024).
Cohen J, Diamond C, Ferguson L, Gruskin S, with UNDP and WHO. “Issue Brief II– Addressing mpox (monkeypox): Effective Science and Human Rights-based Approaches,” United Nations Development Programme, in partnership with USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (2024).
Ferguson L. “Assessing Work at the Intersection of Health and Human Rights: Why? How? And Whom?” Human Rights Research Methods (2024).
Ferguson L, Satchi K*, Kizito I, Kuria S. “Kenya Country Case Study: Equity in COVID-19: Mitigation and policy responses in Equity in COVID-19: Mitigation and policy responses in Africa,” Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
Kuria S, Lambert-Peck M*, Kapsandui T, Ferguson L. “Uganda Country Case Study: Equity in COVID-19: Mitigation and Policy Responses in in Equity in COVID-19: Mitigation and policy responses in Africa,” Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
Ferguson L, Grangeiro A, Natividad A, Massa P, Rodrigues A, Ferraz D, Zucchi EM. “Are Rights-Based Services Important? An Adolescent PrEP Demonstration Study in Brazil,” Health and Human Rights (2024).
Ferguson L, Anderson ME, Liang M, Filmer-Wilson E. “Why a good law isn’t always good enough: A global review of restrictions to supportive laws for sexual and reproductive health and rights,” BMJ Global Health (2024).
Kuria-Ndiritu S Mubita B, Kutna J, Kapsandui T, Karanja S, Anyona D, Murerwa J, Ferguson L. “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response on access to and utilization of reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health services in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia,” PLOS Global Health (2024).
Peet S, Cohen J, Ferguson L, Gruskin S. “Listening is Believing: Can Oral History Catalyze Greater Investment in Health and Human Rights?,” Health and Human Rights Journal (2024).
Ferguson L, Emoto S, Gruskin S. “Laws Governing Access to Sexual Health Services and Information: Contents, Protections, and Restrictions,” Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2024).
Ferguson L, Anderson E. M., Satchi K, Capron M. A, Kaplan D. Charles, Redfield P & Gruskin S. “The Ubiquity of ‘Self-Care’ in Health: Why Specificity Matters,” Global Public Health (2024).
Ferguson L, Desai S. “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Palestine – Securing Spaces to Speak Out,” Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2024).
Kapadia F, Ferguson L, Parmet WE. “Understanding the Post-Dobbs Landscape for Abortion Care in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health (2024).
Gizamba J, Wilson J, Mendenhall E, Ferguson L. “A Review of Place-related Contextual Factors in Syndemics Research,” Health and Place (2023).
Ferguson L. “Health Justice in the Context of Health and Human Rights,” American Journal of Public Health (2023).
Everhart AR, Ferguson L, Wilson J. “Measuring Geographic Access to Transgender Hormone Therapy in Texas: A Three-step Floating Catchment Area Analysis,” Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Epidemiology (2023).
Gruskin S, Ferguson L. “Sexual Rights: Ever-Contested, but Never More Important,” in Aggleton P, Cover R, Logie C.H., Newman C.E., and Parker R. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights (2nd ed.). Routledge. (2023)
Ferguson L, Gruskin S, Bolshakova M, Rozelle M, Yagyu S, Kasoka K, Oraro-Lawrence T, Motala A, Stackpool-Moore L, Hempel S. “Systematic Review and Quantitative and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Interventions to Address HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination,” AIDS (2023).
Ferguson L, Magno L, Dourado I, Greco D, Ferraz D, Tupinambas U, Grangeiro A. “When Ethics and the Law Collide: A Multicenter Demonstration Cohort Study of Preexposure Prophylaxis Provision to Adolescent Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Brazil,” Zucchi EM, Journal of Adolescent Health (2023).
L. Ferguson, S. Gruskin, M. Bolshakova, M. Rozelle, S. Yagyu, K. Kasoka, T. Oraro-Lawrence, A. Motala, L. Stackpool-Moore, S. Hempel. “Getting to the Heart of Stigma: Systematic Review and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Interventions to Address HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination,” AIDS (2023).

Technical Reports:

Cohen J, Ferguson L, Gruskin S,et al. “Addressing Mpox (monkeypox): Effective Science and Rights-based Approaches,” UNDP and USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. United Nations Development Programme (2023).
Ferguson L, Lin Y, Smith-Greenaway E. “Decision-Making Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health Behaviors and Experiences,” Program on Global Health and Human Rights, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California (2023).
Ferguson L, Anderson M. “Sustainable Development Goal 5.6.2: Analysis of restrictions to laws for sexual and reproductive health,” Program on Global Health and Human Rights, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California (2023).

Accepted Abstracts:

Ferguson L, Anderson M. “Understanding the complexity of legal frameworks that shape access to HIV-related information and services,” The XXV International AIDS Conference, Munich, Germany (2024).
Ssali RO, Agaba C, Babi N, Kalema-Zikusoka G, Ferguson L, Kigundu G, Haumba M, Paul E, Mutyaba J, Ndumu BD, Enyel E, Sekamatte M, Kizito D, Luwama JJ. “Inclusion of refugee communities in the prevention and control of zoonotic diseases at the human-animal-environment interface: A case of refugee settlement in Uganda,” World One Health Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (2024).
Haumba M, Agaba C, Emoto S, Nalukwago R, Field N, Kizito D, Kalema-Zikusoka G, Ferguson L, Seeley J, Lutwama JJ. “Socio-cultural drivers of vulnerability to zoonotic disease in Uganda’s wildlife conservation are: A qualitative study,” World One Health Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (2024).
Ferguson L, Agaba C, Anderson M, Sekamatte M, Kalema-Zikusoka G, Seeley J, Lutwama JJ. “Uganda’s One Health legal and policy environment: Opportunities and Challenges,” World One Health Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (2024).
Kizito D, Lula SA, Gibb RJ, Mutyaba J, Babi N, Balinandi S, Owen L, Nyakarahuka L, Sekamatte M, Atimendi P, Kalema-Ziksoka G, Ferguson L, Ndumu DB, Abubaker I, Field N, Seeley J, Lutwama JJ. “Collaborative One Health research initiative on epidemics in Uganda – study protocol,” World One Health Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (2024).
Agaba C, Haumba M, Kizito D, Babi N, Kalema-Zikusoka G, Emoto S, Ferguson L, Seeley J, Field N, Lutwama JJ. “Gender and exposure pathways to zoonotic infections in communities at the interface of wildlife conservation areas of Uganda: A qualitative study,” World One Health Congress, Cape Town, South Africa (2024).
Gruskin S, Brown R, Ferguson L, Khosla R, Maleche A. “Abortion Services and Access in a post-Roe World: Local and Global Responses to Complex Legal Environments,” Global Health at a Crossroads: Equity, Climate Change and Microbial Threats, Consortium of Universities for Global Health 2023, Washington, D.C., United States (2023).
Anderson M, Basturk M, Guo L, Tabassum A, Ferguson L, Cohen J. “Learning by Doing: Educational Effects of Engaging Health Students as Interviewers in a Health and Human Rights Oral History Project,” Oral History Association Conference, Baltimore, United States (2023).
Lin, Y, Ferguson L, Smith-Greenaway E. “On the Social Benefits of Family Planning: An Analysis of Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Population Association of America Annual Meeting, New Orleans, United States (2023).
Basturk M, Cohen J, Ferguson L, Guo L, Tabassum A. “Storing the Stories: The Health and Human Rights Oral History Project,” Los Angeles Global Health Conference, Los Angeles, United States (2023).