Doctor Sophie La Vincente is an epidemiologist working in international child health. Prior to joining Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, she was engaged in international drug dependence policy and research, interning at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters' Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse before returning to Australia to complete a PhD in Medicine (Pharmacology) in 2005. She commenced working with Murdoch Childrens in 2006 while undertaking the Australian Field Epidemiology Training Program (Master of Applied Epidemiology, ANU). Here, she works with the International Child Health and Pneumococcal groups. Doctor La Vincente’s main research interests include the delivery of vaccines in developing countries and increasing equitable access to child health services. She is a co-investigator on grants totaling over $10 million from funding agencies including the GAVI Alliance and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Doctor La Vincente has undertaken numerous consultancies for UN and other agencies, including an evaluation of paediatric oxygen systems in district hospitals in Malawi and Mongolia, strengthening a Unicef-supported maternal nutrition program in the southern Philippines, and conducting the final evaluation of the DFAT-funded Pacific Rheumatic Heart Disease Program in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Nauru and Kiribati. In 2015 Sophie was engaged by WHO to evaluate Vaccine Preventable Disease surveillance systems in Mongolia and the Philippines.

maternal, neonatal and child health