Elaine Murphy received her BA degree from Marquette University, her Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, and her Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland in the early 1980s. She worked for 11 years at Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), where she directed the Women’s Reproductive Health Initiative, a policy project to improve women’s lives by promoting their reproductive health within a gender and human rights framework. Prior to joining PATH, Dr. Murphy was Director of International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), and implemented a USAID-funded project to communicate actionable population and reproductive health research findings to policymakers in developing countries. At USAID’s Office of Population, Dr. Murphy designed, monitered, and evaluated large-scale family planning communication and training projects.
Dr. Murphy was active in the USAID Interagency Gender Working Group and for eight years co-chaired the Client-Provider Interactions Committee of USAID’s initiative to maximize access to and quality of reproductive health services (MAQ). USAID honored her with a MAQ Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Murphy also served on the Human Rights Committee of the American Public Health Association.
Updated: Elaine Murphy, Emeritus Professor, Global Health Department, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington, DC, USA Dr Murphy’s expertise during her career lay in international health, with specialties in population studies, family planning, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, maternal and child health, gender, and human rights She retired from GWU in February, 2006
Health and Medical Geography 