Therese J. McGinn, DrPH

Therese McGinn, DrPH, is Professor Emerita of Population and Family Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York and founding Director of the Reproductive Health Access, Information and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative. 

During her more than 30 years of public health work, Dr. McGinn focused on using sound data collection and analysis to improve the scope and quality of sexual and reproductive health services globally, in order for women and men to make choices about their sexual and reproductive lives and rights. Dr. McGinn has focused most intently in Africa but also has experience in Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Since the mid-1990s, her work included a substantive focus on the reproductive health of populations affected by wars and natural disasters. She also published widely, taught and mentored generations of students at the graduate and doctoral levels. She currently chairs the Funding Committee for the UK-based Research on Health in Humanitarian Crises and serves on the Board of Directors of Doctors of the World-US.

Dr. McGinn received the Doctor of Public Health degree from Columbia University with a dissertation on fertility desires and behavior of women in post-genocide Rwanda, the Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan in Population Planning, and the Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in development economics.


Selected publications
  • Foster, A, McGinn T and 8 co-authors (2017). “The 2018 Inter-agency field manual on reproductive health in humanitarian settings: revising the global standards.” Reproductive Health Matters, 25(8):1403277. https://doi.org/10.1080/09688080.2017.1403277
  • McGinn T, Casey SE (2016). “Why don’t humanitarian organizations provide safe abortion services?” Conflict and Health, 10:8. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13031-016-0075-8
  • McGinn T (2011).  Reducing Death and Disability from Unsafe Abortion. Chapter 19 in The Routledge International Handbook on Global Public Health. Parker R and Sommer M, Editors. Routledge, Oxford, United Kingdom: 191–198.


Updated July 13, 2023