Laura Faherty, MD, MPH, MSHP is the Associate Director of the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Scholarship Academy and an attending physician in the MMP Pediatric Clinic at Maine Medical Center. Outside of her work at Maine Medical Center, Dr. Faherty is a physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Dr. Faherty attended Emory University for both her MD and MPH in global epidemiology. She then completed her residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She also received her MS in health policy research from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Faherty’s clinical interests include caring for families affected by substance use and families who have come to Maine from all over the world. She enjoys thinking about systemic solutions to challenges her patients are facing that affect their health and wellbeing. Her research focuses on maternal-child health and public health emergency preparedness and response, both in U.S. and non-U.S. settings. Her current work addresses COVID-19 testing in K-12 schools; equitable COVID-19 vaccine delivery; policy responses to opioid use in pregnancy; and behavioral health surveillance in the disaster context. Her research has been funded by NIH, CDC, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

Dr. Faherty lives in the Portland area with her husband and two young daughters.

Scholarship Areas of Interest: maternal-child health, pandemic preparedness and response