Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Sarah McIvor Murray, PhD ’15, MSPH '11, researches mental health, stigma, and violence to promote the health of marginalized populations in low-resource communities.
Research Interests
global mental health; intimate partner violence; stigma; depression; conflict and health; measurement; maternal mental health; sexual and gender minority health
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
A major focus of my research to date has been the rigorous evaluation of interventions designed to treat mental disorders and distress for survivors of torture and conflict-related violence in diverse global settings. Currently, my primary research interest is in using mixed-methods to understand the multifaceted relationship between violence, stigma, and common mental disorders to inform the development of effective strategies to promote the mental health and psychosocial well-being of individuals living in situations of complex adversity in high-, middle- and low-income country contexts, with a particular focus on women with young children and sexual and gender minority adults.
Honors & Awards
2024 SOURCE Faculty Excellence in Service-Learning Award
2024 NIMH Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program (LRP) Awardee
2018 NIMH Child Intervention, Prevention and Services Fellowship
2017 NICHD Pediatric Loan Repayment Program (LRP) Awardee
2016 Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2013 Sommer Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2012 Marcia G. Pines Award in Bioethics and Public Health
2010 Humanitarian Assistance Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2006 Summa Cum Laude, The College of William and Mary
2006 Megan Owen Award for Excellence in Government, The College of William and Mary
2006 Omicron Delta Kappa, The College of William and Mary
2006 Phi Beta Kappa, The College of William and Mary
2002 Monroe Scholar, The College of William and Mary
Select Publications
Selected publications from the last 5 years
Murray SM, Wiginton JM, Xue QL, Dibble K, Sanchez T, Kane JC, Augustinavicius J, Nowak RG, Crowell A, Njindam IM, Tamoufe U, Charurat M, Turpin G, Sithole B, Mothopeng T, Nemande S, Simplice A, Kouanda S, Diouf D, Lyons C, Baral S (2023). Measuring sexual behavior stigma among cisgender men who have sex with men: an assessment of cross-country measurement invariance. Stigma and Health, 9(3):349-361. doi: 10.1037/sah0000443
Murray SM, Skavenski Van Wyk S, Metz K, Mulema SM, Mwenge MM, Kane JC, Alto M, Venturo-Conerly K, Wasil AR, Fine SL, Murray LK (2021). A qualitative exploration of mechanisms of intimate partner violence reduction for Zambian couples receiving the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) intervention. Social Science and Medicine, 268. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113458
Nguyen A†, Murray S†, Rahaman KS, Lasater M, Barua S, Catherine L, Schojan M, Tonon B, Clouin L, Le Roch K (2024). Psychosocial impacts of Baby Friendly Spaces for Rohingya refugee mothers in Bangladesh: a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial. Global Mental Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2024.58
Fine SL, Willis K, Lucas IL, Siebach KF, Glick JL, Valentine-Graves M, Winter S, Smith MJ, Waltz T, Bailey Herring G, Wilcox HC, Sanchez T, Baral SD, Murray SM (2025). Investigating mental health disparities in rural sexual and gender minority adults: Protocol for the Rural Exploration and Approaches to LGBTQ+ Mental health (REALM) prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health.
Murray SM, Lasater ME, Guimond M, Poku O, Musci R, Al-Fataftah M, Kasina L, Lwambi M, Salaimeh A, Falb K (2021). Measuring sexual violence stigma in humanitarian contexts: Assessment of scale psychometric properties and validity with female sexual violence survivors from Somalia and Syria. Conflict and Health, 15(96). doi: 10.1186/s13031-021-00431-z.