Sandra I. ​McCoy, PhD, MPH

Biography

Together with collaborators in the United States, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, Dr. McCoy designs, implements, and evaluates new programs and policies to overcome global health challenges, focusing on sexual and reproductive health. She is especially interested in innovative, scalable interventions and implementation models, often using technology, that can positively change health behavior, such as increasing adherence to treatment, bolstering the adoption of modern contraception, or encouraging people to engage in beneficial health screenings. To achieve these goals, Dr. McCoy uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods from epidemiology, impact evaluation, implementation science, behavioral science, and human-centered design. Behavioral interventions developed and/or evaluated by Dr. McCoy’s team are featured in various compendiums of evidence-based best practices, including the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis Project and the Behavioral Evidence Hub (B-Hub).

Dr. McCoy is committed to training, supporting, and empowering the next generation of public health leaders, locally and globally. This includes teaching PH250A: Introduction to Epidemiologic Methods at Berkeley Public Health, her role as Program Lead of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Concentration in the UC Berkeley Online Master of Public Health (MPH), and through a co-PI role on a NIH D43 Training Grant in Cameroon. She also regularly mentors postdoctoral fellows as part of the Global Health Equity Scholars program.

Research Interests

• Impact evaluation and implementation science
• Digital health interventions
• Behavioral science and human-centered design
• HIV prevention and care
• Sexual and reproductive health, especially among adolescents

Education

• PhD – Epidemiology
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• MPH – Epidemiology
  University of Michigan
• BA – Molecular and Cell Biology
  University of California, Berkeley

Publications

• PubMed

Courses Taught

• • PH250A / PHW250
  • Epidemiologic Methods