Laura J. Faherty

Laura J. Faherty is a Senior Physician Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation and an Affiliate Professor of Policy Analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. She is also an Associate Professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine and an attending physician at Maine Medical Center, holding the title of RAND Global Scholar in Pandemic Preparedness. Her research focuses on maternal-child health, pandemic preparedness, vaccination strategies, and behavioral health surveillance in public health crises.

Education:

• M.D. and M.P.H. (Global Epidemiology) from Emory University
• M.S. in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania
• B.A. in History of Science from Princeton University

Research Interests: Her work emphasizes building public health trust through social media, wastewater surveillance for pandemic early warning, school vaccination policies, and perinatal behavioral health. She has contributed to critical initiatives like the CDC-funded behavioral health surveillance toolkit, the 2020 U.S. Vaccines National Strategic Plan, and The Rockefeller Foundation's playbook for K–12 school testing during the pandemic.

Grants & Funding: Supported by NIH (NIDA, NIMHD, NIMH), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and CDC.

Labs & Teams: Collaborates across interdisciplinary teams at RAND, Tufts, and global health organizations to address pandemic preparedness and maternal-child health disparities.