Dr. Rupali Limaye Appointed Deputy Director of IVAC

The International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) is pleased to announce that Rupali Limaye, PhD, MPH, MA, been appointed as its new Deputy Director. Dr. Limaye joined IVAC in 2020 as the Director of Behavioral and Implementation Science and is a full-time faculty member in the Departments of International Health, Epidemiology, and Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Widely seen as an expert in vaccine behavior and decision-making, including vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, Dr. Limaye is a social and behavioral scientist and health communication scholar, primarily focusing on infectious diseases. She studies vaccine decision-making in multiple ways, including the influence of social media on vaccine hesitancy, messaging appeals to move people to vaccine acceptance, and how to navigate vaccine conversations with peers and parents. She recently led the development of the popular course, “COVID Vaccine Ambassador Training: How to Talk to Parents.”

At IVAC, Dr. Limaye serves as the Principal Investigator for the CHOICE Optimization for Immunization: Country Exercises in Sustainability (CHOICES) project, Coalition to Strengthen the HPV Immunization Community (CHIC) project, Preparing Early Adopter Countries for Maternal Vaccination project,and the Implementation Research on Vaccine Hesitancy project.

Dr. Limaye’s mixed method work examines how various influences affect health behavior and how those influences can affect positive behavior change. She also studies how health information can best be communicated to individuals in different contexts and through different channels. Throughout her 15 years in global health, she has worked in more than 30 countries on topics including immunization, family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and alcohol use, and teaches award-winning classes related to persuasive communication. Rupali holds a BA in political science and a BS in journalism/advertising from the University of Kansas, an MA in U.S. foreign policy, an MPH in global health from the George Washington University, and a PhD in social and behavioral sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.