Prativa Baral

PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor (Research), Department of Global and Public Health, McGill University; Deputy Director, Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab (PERL), McGill University; Faculty Associate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Co-Founder, Let Science Connect
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Prativa Baral, PhD, MPH, is a 2025 Gairdner Early Career Investigator.

She is an epidemiologist and a global health scholar committed to strengthening how societies prepare for and respond to crises. She is an Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University and Deputy Director of the Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab (PERL), where she leads work on pandemic preparedness, misinformation, and health system resilience. She also holds a Faculty Associate role at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-founded Let Science Connect, an institute dedicated to training experts in science communication.

Dr. Baral’s research bridges evidence, policy, and practice. During COVID-19, she co-developed a rapid-cycle data framework to detect health system disruptions in real time, a tool now applied in over 30 countries. She also directed the Secretariat for the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences’ expert panel on Canada’s role in global health.

She has advised governments and international organizations including the UN, WHO, World Bank, Gates Foundation, and OpenAI, with a consistent focus on equity and communities most affected by instability and health shocks.