Biography
Dr. Leesa Lin, an Associate Professor at LSHTM, serves as Co-Director and Behavioural and Digital Innovations Lead of the Vaccine Confidence Project, with a special focus on the Asia Pacific region. Dr. Lin leads a highly skilled multidisciplinary team that uses innovative approaches, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics, machine learning, and statistics modelling, to anticipate, prevent, prepare for, and respond to public health risks. Their research spans a wide range of critical areas, including pandemic outbreaks, climate disasters, antimicrobial resistance, vaccine hesitancy, infodemics, misinformation, trust, and the health of vulnerable populations. The team’s work aims to advance societal preparedness and personalised health management, via AI-powered solutions with a focus on improving global health outcomes.
Dr. Lin’s expertise lies in decision and behavioural sciences, social epidemiology, evaluation, and implementation science in the context of public health emergency preparedness and response. Dr. Lin’s research utilises mixed-methods data from social listening, population surveys, and rapid polling, qualitative methods, and routine data in the development and assessment of behavioural and digital interventions. Since 2008, Dr. Lin has been at the forefront of assessing public health system performance, emergency risk communications, and social determinants of health in the response to large-scale public health emergencies, including earthquakes, water crises, climate-related disasters, and acute infectious disease outbreaks such as H1N1, MERS, and COVID-19.
Dr. Lin has been a member of the Social Science Research Working Group for the WHO Blueprint for 2019 novel Coronavirus Global R&D Preparedness. Her contributions to the field have been recognised through numerous awards, honours, and grants. Her research has been translated into guidelines, practice tools, executive education and training, and digital products such as chatbots and other gadgets. She holds a PhD in Implementation Science and Social Epidemiology, a ScM in Global Health and Population from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BA in Psychology and Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia.
