Prof. Heidi Larson

Prof. Heidi J. Larson, PhD, is an anthropologist and Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP), a WHO Centre of Excellence on vaccine hesitancy. She is Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Clinical Professor at the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation, Guest Professor at the University of Antwerp, and a Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security Fellow.

She previously headed Global Immunization Communication at UNICEF, chaired Gavi’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. Her research examines the social and political factors shaping uptake of health interventions, with particular focus on risk and rumour management and building public trust during emergencies such as outbreaks, disasters, and conflict. She served on the FDA’s Medical Countermeasure Emergency Communication Expert Working Group and led the EU-funded EBODAC project on Ebola vaccine trial deployment in Sierra Leone.

She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away (Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2021, she received the Edinburgh Medal and was named by the BBC among the 100 most influential women in the world.