Heidi J Larson, PhD, is Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project and Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science  at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is also the Director of European Initiatives and Clinical Professor in the department of Health  Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington. Professor Larson previously headed Global Immunization Communication at UNICEF and chaired the GAVI Advocacy Task Force.

     Dr. Larson’s research focuses on the analysis of social and political factors that can affect uptake of health interventions and influence policies. Her particular interest is on risk and rumour management in health programmes, particularly around vaccines and immunization.  She served on the FDA Medical Countermeasure (MCM) Emergency Communication Expert Working Group, and is Principle Investigator of the EU-funded (EBODAC) project on the deployment, acceptance and compliance of an Ebola vaccine trial in Sierra Leone.