
Dr Laura J Brown
(Co-Principal Investigator)

Dr Laura J Brown is a mixed-methods population health scientist with expertise in anthropological and epidemiological approaches to understanding human health and behaviour. She has a BSc in Biological Anthropology, an MSc in Reproductive & Sexual Health Research and a PhD in Epidemiology & Population Health. Laura has strong statistical skills as well as interdisciplinary training in qualitative and creative research methodologies. Laura has conducted research on a wide range of public health issues and has experience designing, delivering and evaluating research to improve public health and inform public health policy. Her PhD at LSHTM explored environmental links with breastfeeding in the UK and at LSE her research focussed on women’s reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries. At Public Health England, she applied behavioural science to the key public health areas of diet and obesity and sexual health, focussing on public food environments and HIV. Laura co-founded the Environment x Women’s Health Project and organised a series of workshops to bring together academics and practitioners interested in the environment-gender-health nexus to facilitate knowledge exchange and networking across the UK, Peru and beyond. Laura’s fieldwork experience includes administering sex and relationships education surveys in London secondary schools, delivering PhotoVoice activities to teenagers as part of a UK-Japan adolescent sociality project and conducting online interviews with Peruvian NGOs. She is currently based at UCL’s Institute for Global Health where she is working on the EVE Project, a research study to improve the evidence around the prevention of violence against women in the world's most prevalent settings, with case studies in Samoa and Peru.
Expertise:
Environmental quality | Infant feeding | Sexual Health | Reproductive Health | Human Behavioural Ecology | Social Epidemiology | Public Health | Behavioural Science
Qualifications:
PhD Epidemiology & Population Health (Demography)
MSc Reproductive & Sexual Health Research
BSc Biological Anthropology