Dr Gillian Mckay
DrPH BSN RN
Honorary Research Fellow
LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom
Gillian McKay, DrPH, RN, is a global health practitioner and researcher with a specialty in primary and secondary impacts of epidemics. She is currently working with Elrha's R2HC programme where she works to ensure that the research Elrha funds meets the priority needs of the humanitarian community and is shared with the right people to make change. She has previously worked with the World Health Organization, the International Rescue Committee, UK-Med, Imperial College, GOAL Global and others.
As a recent DrPH graduate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine she is well connected to evidence-generation efforts in the global health space. Her DrPH researched how communities were engaged in large epidemics of Ebola and how their knowledge and experiences were integrated into response actions.
Gillian contributes to research and policy in the fields of epidemic disease, community engagement in humanitarian crises, maternal health, gender and human rights, and the health impacts of global trends including urbanization, migration, and climate change.
Gillian holds a BSN from the University of British Columbia and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is active in Canadian academic circles as a 2016 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Conflict and Health. Feb 2022. LSHTM
Disease Outbreaks in LMICs. Sept 2019 & Jan 2020. LSHTM
Ebola in Conflict: Field perspectives on response strategy and implementation in DRC. June 2019. LSHTM
Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Crises. Feb 2018. Imperial College.
LIDC Short Course Development: Humanitarian Crises. London International Development Centre, UK
Ethics and Decision Making in Humanitarian Crises. May 2017. UK-Med Foreign Medical Team, UK
Health Systems. Jan-Mar 2017. LSHTM MSc Public Health, UK
Community and Facility Level Health Interventions in Humanitarian Contexts. Nov 2016. Imperial College MSc Global Health, UK.
Health in Humanitarian Action. January 2016. York University School of Nursing, UK
Public Health in Fragile States. November 2015. Imperial College MSc Global Health, UK.
“What’s Next?”: Health System Strengthening in Sierra Leone. June 2015. LSHTM Public Health and Policy Department Seminar, UK
Programme Development in South Sudan. May 2015. LSHTM MSc Health Services Management, UK
Research
McKay G, Enria L, Nam S, Fofanah M, Conteh SG, Lees S. Family planning in the Sierra Leone Ebola outbreak: Women's proximal and distal reasoning. Studies in Family Planning. 2022
Ousman K et al (inc McKay G). Evaluation of a health systems strengthening intervention to improve Ebola Virus Disease infection prevention and control in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Journal of Global Health Reports. 2022
McKay G, Baggio O, Camara C A, Erlach E, Robles Dios L, Checchi F, Rohan H. 'The response is like a big ship': community feedback as a case study of evidence uptake and use in the 2018-2020 Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. BMJ Global Health. 2022
Takemoto M, McKay G, Amorim M, Gbomosa CN, Tengbeh AF, Wenham C. How can countries create outbreak response policies that are sensitive to maternal health? BMJ. 2021
McKay G, Lees S. Letter to the Editor re. Protection by Exclusion: Another Missed Opportunity to Include Pregnant Women in Research During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2020
Rohan H, McKay G. The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: why there is no 'silver bullet'. Nature Immunology. 2020
McKay G, Black B, Janvrin A, Wheeler E. Sexual and reproductive health in Ebola response: A neglected priority. Humanitarian Exchange Magazine. 2020
Dada, S, McKay G, Mateus A, Lees S. Lessons learned from engaging communities for Ebola vaccine trials in Sierra Leone: reciprocity, relatability, relationships and respect (the four R's). BMC Public Health. (2019)
McKay, G. & Parker, M. Epidemics in Humanitarianism: A Dictionary of Concepts. Routledge. (2018)
Hanefeld, J., et al. (inc McKay, G.) Towards an understanding of resilience: Responding to Health Systems Shocks. Health Policy and Planning. (2018)
Mattia, John G., et al. (inc McKay, G.) Early clinical sequelae of Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases (2015).
McKay, G. “There was no good choice”: An ethics case study from the Ebola response. Nursing ethics (2015).
