Dr Megan Carey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with extensive experience developing evidence-based vaccination policy and translating genomic and epidemiological evidence into public health decision-making. She will shortly begin a Wellcome Early Career Award fellowship at AIGHD, where her research will examine how typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) introduction shapes Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) population structure and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This work will focus on TCV impact following national introductions in Malawi and Pakistan. Her fellowship will integrate genomic and epidemiological data to inform modelling approaches that assess the population-level impacts of vaccination and different antimicrobial use strategies.

Alongside her academic research, Dr Carey has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), developing methodological guidance to measure the impact of licensed and pipeline vaccines on antimicrobial resistance. As a Director at MM Global Health (MMGH), she has contributed to multiple Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Groups that inform WHO vaccination policy recommendations. These include working groups on pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, dengue vaccines, RSV vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, and typhoid conjugate vaccines. She is the co-lead of the WHO Bacterial Pathogen Research and Emergency Preparedness (BacPREP) Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) and a Coordinator of the Global Typhoid Genomics Consortium, which enables the use of genomic data to inform typhoid control policy.

Dr Carey completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the molecular epidemiology of S. Typhi and its implications for vaccine policy and AMR, and developed strategic and analytic components of a typhoid conjugate vaccine effectiveness study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Introduction in Africa (THECA) programme. She subsequently held roles at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), coordinating scientific and policy initiatives linking bacterial vaccine development to global AMR priorities, and at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where she worked on the translation of genomic data into policy and programme decision-making through the AMRnet project.

Previously, Dr Carey served as strategic typhoid lead in the Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases team at the Gates Foundation, where she used epidemiological evidence, strategy, and policy analysis to set priorities, shape investment strategies, and inform policies for typhoid prevention and control.

She holds a Master of Science in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control, with a certificate in Vaccine Science and Policy, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard College.