About
Prior to joining the UMBC faculty, Prof. McLaren was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan from 2010-2018. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Economics from the University of Michigan.
Research interests
Dr. McLaren is a health economist whose research informs health and economic policy to combat infectious disease epidemics including HIV, tuberculosis and COVID19 in the United States and abroad. She develops rigorous applied statistical approaches to answer important policy questions using real-world data.
Her work builds the evidence base in three key research areas: (1) the impact of health and economic policies to fight HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 globally, (2) the relationship between access to health resources and economic outcomes, and (3) the causes of persistent poverty.
Teaching interests
Health economics, public policy, econometrics, economics.
Education
- Ph D, Public Policy and Economics — University of Michigan, School of Public Policy (2010)
- BA, Biology and Government — Dartmouth College (2000)
Publications
- The Impact of Anti-Retroviral Therapy on Tuberculosis Detection at the National Level in South Africa 2018
- An econometric method for estimating population parameters from non-random samples: An application to clinical case finding 2017
- Assessing healthcare quality using routine data: evaluating the performance of the national tuberculosis programme in South Africa 2017
- A Data-Driven Evaluation of the Stop TB Global Partnership Strategy of Targeting Key Populations at Greater Risk for Tuberculosis 2016
- Does directly observed therapy improve tuberculosis treatment? More evidence is needed to guide tuberculosis policy 2016
- Equity in the national rollout of public AIDS treatment in South Africa 2004-08 2015
- Distance decay and persistent health care disparities in South Africa 2014
- HIV STATUS AND LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION IN SOUTH AFRICA 2013
- Understanding the relationship between access to care and facility-based delivery through analysis of the 2008 Ghana Demographic Health Survey 2013
- Assessing the Prevalence of COVID-19 and Post-COVID Condition in Adults with Disabilities in the United States: A Systematic Review
Research in Progress
- Reported Cases of COVID-19 and Post-COVID Condition among Individuals with Disabilities, 2021-2023 2024
Courses Taught
- Research Methodology