Rachel Hounsell

Dr Rachel Hounsell is a health economist and infectious disease modeller specialising in the development and application of mathematical and economic models to support evidence-based public health decision-making. She is a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford, working in collaboration with the Modelling and Simulation Hub, Africa (MASHA) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She completed her DPhil in Clinical Medicine at Oxford and holds a Master’s in Development Finance from UCT and an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine from Oxford.

Her research focuses on vaccine-preventable diseases, malaria, and epidemic-prone infections, with particular emphasis on integrating modelling and economic evaluation to inform policy. She has contributed to major global health projects, including modelling for COVID-19 response planning in South Africa, vaccine prioritisation during the diphtheria outbreak in Nigeria, and modelling to support immunisation strategy design in Uganda. Her work involves close collaboration with ministries of health, advisory groups and international organisations, and she develops accessible decision-support tools for non-technical audiences.

Dr Hounsell is also a Senior Teaching Fellow at Oxford and UCT, contributing to teaching and supervision in infectious disease modelling, health economics, and epidemiology. She co-directs a regional fellowship programme to strengthen modelling capacity and policy translation across Africa.

Earlier in her career, she worked with the World Health Organization as a technical advisor and co-founded the Social Innovation in Health Initiative, supporting programmes across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has held roles in research management, global health consulting, and economic policy, including work with the US CDC, LSHTM, SADC, and UKHSA.