Mark Marchant

Mark Marchant is a Research Fellow in the Department of Global Health and Development within the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). His work focuses on community engagement in emergent disease outbreaks, with extensive field experience in Kenya and Tanzania since 2008, working with research consulting firms, think tanks, and non-profits including UZIKWASA in Pangani, Tanzania.

Education

• PhD in Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (2020-present)
• MA in Legal & Political Theory, University College London (2017-2018)
• BA in Political Science, Vassar College (2007-2011)
• PG Cert in Learning and Teaching, University of London (2019-2020)

With a background in political theory, Mr. Marchant's research centers on community engagement during disease outbreaks, vaccine deployment, and health policy. His work examines how colonial legacies impact current health systems and explores ways research can help dismantle systems of domination and oppression. He emphasizes high expectations of both researchers and communities to ask meaningful questions that drive social change. His methodological expertise includes ethnography and qualitative research approaches, with particular focus on Tanzania and Kenya.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on community engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola outbreaks, and vaccine deployment across multiple African countries. The research spans political dimensions of vaccine confidence, cross-border health dynamics, adaptation of research methods during emergencies, and community-led approaches to health promotion. Much of this work takes place within the African Coalition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training (ALERRT) consortium and the AViD project on anthropology of vaccine deployment.

Grants and Projects

• ALERRT - African Coalition for Epidemic Research Response and Training (2017-2025)
• AViD: Anthropology of Vaccine Deployment in emergencies (community engagement lead)
• Ninajiamini: Partnerships for preventing violence against women in Tanzania (2019-2020)
• Understanding and Addressing the Awarding Gap in HPPP (2024)
• Anthropological exploration of facilitators and barriers to vaccine deployment (2018-2023)

Mr. Marchant serves as Module Organiser for the Health Policy: Process & Power (HPPP) module at LSHTM and has lectured on community engagement for Oxford University's CREDO module, Georgetown University's Engaging Communities for Health course, and the Gender Violence & Health Centre's short course on Researching Gender-Based Violence. His teaching draws directly from his field experience in policy research spaces.

Research Teams

He is actively involved with the African Coalition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training (ALERRT), working on the consortium's community engagement and social science work package. His work often involves collaboration with community health workers in Tanzania to improve health promotion around vaccine initiatives, including designing and leading deliberative engagement training strategies to enhance the relevance and quality of health promotion work around COVID-19 vaccines.