Rupali J. Limaye, PhD, MPH, MA

Rupali J. Limaye, PhD, MPH, MA, is an Associate Professor. She is seen as an expert in vaccine behavior and decision-making, including vaccine hesitancy and acceptance. Primarily focusing on infectious diseases, Dr. Limaye is a social and behavioral scientist and health communication scholar. Her mixed-method work examines how various influences affect health behavior and how to leverage those influences to affect positive behavior change. She also studies how health information can best be communicated to individuals in different contexts and through different channels. In her 20 years of working in global health, she has worked in more than 30 countries from both research and implementation perspectives, on topics including immunization, family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and alcohol, and teaches classes on global disease program and policies, misinformation, health behavior change, and persuasive communication. She received her PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also holds an MPH in global health, an MA in international affairs, a BA in political science, and a BS in journalism.

Research Interests

• Vaccine behavior
• Vaccine acceptance
• Misinformation
• Maternal and child health
• Adolescent health

Honors and Awards

• Full Tuition Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2008-2012)
• Top Four Paper Award, Health Communication Division, International Communication Association (2010)
• Special Projects Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2010; 2011)
• Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Zanvyl School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University (2010-2011)
• Field Research Award, Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2010-2011)
• Predoctoral Training Grant, National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health (2010-2012)
• Outstanding Teacher Award Nominee, Department of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2013-2014)
• Outstanding Teacher Award, Department of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2014-2015)
• Excellence in Teaching, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2014-2015)
• Lipitz Public Health Policy Faculty Award, Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy (2018-2019)
• Excellence in Teaching, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2019-2020)
• Discovery Award, Johns Hopkins University Office of the Provost (2021)
• Excellence in Teaching, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2021-2022)
• Excellence in Teaching, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2022-2023)

Select Publications

• Guillaume, D., Meyer, D., Waheed, D. E. N., Schlieff, M., Muralidharan, K., Chou, V. B., & Limaye, R. (2023). Factors influencing the prioritization of vaccines by policymakers in low-and middle-income countries: a scoping review. Health policy and planning, 38(3), 363-376.
• Limaye, R. J., Holroyd, T. A., Blunt, M., Jamison, A. F., Sauer, M., Weeks, R., ... & Gellin, B. (2021). Social media strategies to affect vaccine acceptance: a systematic literature review. Expert review of vaccines, 20(8), 959-973.
• Sauer, M. A., Truelove, S., Gerste, A. K., & Limaye, R. J. (2021). A failure to communicate? How public messaging has strained the COVID-19 response in the United States. Health security, 19(1), 65-74.
• Limaye, R. J., Sauer, M., Ali, J., Bernstein, J., Wahl, B., Barnhill, A., & Labrique, A. (2020). Building trust while influencing online COVID-19 content in the social media world. The Lancet digital health, 2(6), e277-e278.
• Dudley, M. Z., Halsey, N. A., Omer, S. B., Orenstein, W. A., T O'Leary, S., Limaye, R. J., & Salmon, D. A. (2020). The state of vaccine safety science: systematic reviews of the evidence. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20(5), e80-e89.
• Professional Affiliations
• Steering Committee, WHO HPV Implementation Research Group
• Member, Wellcome Trust TB Vaccine Advisory Group
• Committee Member, US National Vaccine Advisory Committee, Subcommittee on Vaccine Safety
• National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Societal Experts Action Network
• Advisory Council Member, Sabin Vaccine Institute Vaccine Acceptance Research Network

Degrees

• PhD, Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
• MPH, Global Health, The George Washington University
• MA, International Affairs, The George Washington University
• BS, Journalism, University of Kansas
• BA, Political Science, University of Kansas