LINDSAY STARK
Academic Advisor
Director of Undergraduate Public Health Education, Professor of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Lindsay Stark serves as an academic advisor to the RSRI. Alongside her colleague, Dr. Ilana Seff, she supports learning and evaluation related to refugee self-reliance and the Self-Reliance Index (SRI).
Dr. Stark is a social epidemiologist with more than 20 years of experience in violence prevention, child protection, and humanitarian health research focused on improving outcomes for vulnerable populations through rigorous science and policy engagement. She currently serves as Professor of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directs undergraduate public health education and co-directs the Center on Violence and Health. Her prior leadership roles include Associate Dean of Global Programs at the Brown School, Director of Research at Columbia University's Program on Forced Migration and Health, and Director of the global Child Protection in Crisis (CPC) Network at Columbia University, where she led a partnership of academic institutions, humanitarian agencies, governments, and local partners to advance research and practice in child protection. In these roles, she has led interdisciplinary teams to pioneer innovative measurement approaches, implement multi-site randomized trials across conflict-affected settings, and establish sustainable research centers in Indonesia and Uganda that continue to thrive as active research and policy institutions with their own funding and faculty.
Dr. Stark has directed the successful implementation of multiple NIH- and government-funded projects supporting refugee and migrant youth populations, has authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications, and serves on editorial boards for leading journals. She advises and collaborates with governments, multilateral agencies, and NGOs to translate research into policy and practice.
Dr. Stark earned her Doctor of Public Health and Master of Public Health from Columbia University.
