About
Dr Sara A Morgan (née Afshar) is an Associate Professor in Public Health based within the School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.
Her work is driven by a desire to understand ways to improve the causes and consequences of health inequalities during childhood and early adulthood. Her aim is to close the "evidence gap" in programme and intervention design, particularly around early intervention, and to promote knowledge exchange with partners in the community.
She applies both quantitative and qualitative approaches, working across the UK and internationally, to address health inequalities and tackle the wider determinants of health particularly amongst those affected by violence and crime. She has experience of designing and delivering RCTs, realist and longitudinal methods.
To date she has earned over £10 million in research grants, £1 million as Chief Investigator, from a variety of different sources, including the National Institute for Health Research, the Economic and Social Research Council, Public Health England and Home Office.
Sara leads a team of public health advisors for the national Specialist Centre for Public Health that aims to support the generation of high quality research evidence needed to inform decisions about which interventions have the greatest likelihood of improving population health and reducing health inequalities.
She teaches undergraduates and postgraduates within the Faculty of Medicine, including on the Masters in Public Health and in Medicine (BM5/BM4 undergraduates). Her teaching expertise is in qualitative methodology, mixed methods, global health, evaluations of complex interventions and in violence prevention. She is also a PhD and DM supervisor and a PAT tutor for the Faculty.
Sara trained in biomedical sciences, followed by global health and development at UCL. This led to work as a programme manager for a donor-funded programme at the National Cancer Institute in Sri Lanka and as a health advisor for an international charity. She completed her doctoral studies in epidemiology and international public health at the University of Southampton, undertaking qualitative fieldwork in Ghana. She also had research consultancies with the World Health Organisation in Geneva and Cairo, and held responsibilities as a trustee for a local charity.
In 2020 Sara was awarded Best ECR in Public Health by the National Institute of Health Research and Public Health England.