Lisa Messersmith

Associate Professor, International Health

University of California, Los Angeles, PhD, MA
The Johns Hopkins University, MPH

  • Office: Crosstown Center, CT363
  • Phone: 617-414-1449
  • Email: ljmesser@bu.edu

Biography

Lisa J. Messersmith, PhD, MPH, MA, has over 20 years of experience conducting research and developing, implementing, and evaluating programs and policies addressing sexuality, gender, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Dr. Messersmith is Associate Professor of International Health at Boston University School of Public Health and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Boston University’s College of Arts & Sciences. She has lived and worked in a number of countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso. She is the principal investigator (PI) on several studies/projects including research to better understand and meet the health and social service needs of women living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam; a study of the social and economic determinants of sexual vulnerability among adolescent orphans and vulnerable children in Namibia and Ethiopia; and a study to document the types and magnitude of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. As PI and director of the Vietnam AIDS Policy and Planning Project, she led a team of U.S.-based and Vietnamese faculty to train over 900 policy makers on AIDS policy and planning. From 1998 to 2004, she served as the Sexuality and Reproductive Health Program Officer for the Ford Foundation’s Office for Vietnam and Thailand. In 2004, the Vietnam Ministry of Health awarded her the Medal for the People’s Health. Previous positions include Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights; UNAIDS Country Program Advisor in Bangladesh; Research Associate in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health; and Women and AIDS Advisor at USAID in Washington, DC. She has a PhD and MA in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University.

Projects

Publications

Women living with HIV in Vietnam: desire for children, use of sexual and reproductive health services, and advice from providers

Lisa J. Messersmith, Katherine Semrau, Tran Lan Anh, Nguyen Nguyen Nhu Trang, Dao Mai Hoa, Kristin Eifler and Lora Sabin

Reproductive Health Matters. 2012 Dec; 20(39):27-38.

‘Many people know the law, but also many people violate it’: Discrimination experienced by people living with HIV/ AIDS in Vietnam – Results of a national study

Lisa J. Messersmith, Katherine Semrau, Theodore M. Hammett, Nguyen Tuan Phong, Nguyen Duy Tung, Ha Nguyen, Douglas Glandon, Nguyen Mai Huong & Hoang Tu Anh

Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice. 2012 Sep; 1-16.

Sectarianism and the problem of overpopulation: political representations of reproduction in two low-income neighbourhoods of Beirut, Lebanon

Ashish Premkumar, Karma Salem, Sarah Akhtar , Mary E. Deeb & Lisa J. Messersmith

Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care. 2012 Sep; 1-14.

Lived Experience and Contested Domains: Sexuality and Reproductive and Sexual Health Decision-Making of Women Living with HIV in Vietnam

Messersmith L.

Culture, Health and Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care. 2009 Jan; 11(Supplement 1):S89-90.

Making AIDS Policy Sexy: Evaluation of AIDS Policy Training to Engender a Gendered and Human Rights Response in Vietnam

Messersmith L.

Culture, Health and Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care. 2009 Jan; 11(Supplement 1):S73-74.

Final Report of the Evaluation of the Vietnam AIDS Public Policy Training Project

Messersmith L., Eifler K., Smith A., Tran H. B.

Boston, MA: Center for International Health and Development, Boston University School of Public Health, and Hanoi School of Public Health; 2009.

Integrating the Fields of Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS

Kaufman J., Messersmith L.

Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation; 2005.

Gender and HIV/AIDS

Messersmith L.

AIDS Public Policy Training Project. Cambridge, MA: Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; 2005.

Who’s at Risk? Men’s STD Experience and Condom Use in Southwest Nigeria

Messersmith L. J., Kane T. T., Odebiyi A. I., Adewuyi A. A.

Stud Fam Plann. 2000 Oct; 31(3):203-16.

Reconceptualizing Risk: A Feminist Analysis of HIV/AIDS

Long L., Messersmith L.

The Encyclopedia of Third World Women. Stromquist N.. New York: Garland Publishing; 1997.

Trust, Power and Commitment: The Social and Economic Determinants of Sexual Behavior in Urban Southwest Nigeria.

Messersmith L.

Ph. D. Thesis Department of Anthropology. Los Angeles, CA: University of California, Los Angeles; 1994.

Effectiveness of HIV Counseling and Testing in Changing High-Risk Sexual Behavior: An Annotated Bibliography

Messersmith L.

Behavioral Research Unit. Arlington, Virginia: AIDSCAP, Family Health International; 1992.

An Introduction to Qualitative Methods

Messersmith L.

Child Survival Support Program. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health; 1992.

The Women of Good Times and Baba’s Place: The Multi-Dimensionality of the Lives of Commercial Sex Workers in Bamako, Mali

Messersmith L.

Master's Thesis Department of Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles; 1991.

Mali Country Profile

Messersmith L.

Family Planning Management Training Project. Boston, MA: Management Sciences for Health; 1989.