Rate My Professor Sharuna Verghis

Dr. Sharuna Verghis is a Senior Lecturer at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, where she joined in 2017. A public health researcher, educator, and humanitarian, she holds a PhD in Public Health from Monash University Malaysia. Her doctoral thesis focused on the access of urban refugee women, particularly Chin and Rohingya asylum seekers, to maternal health care in the Klang Valley, employing an interdisciplinary approach that combined international human rights law with public health. Prior to this, she completed an MPhil thesis examining the drugs and pharmaceutical industry. Verghis began her career with a stint in teaching before shifting to public health, working extensively on migration and health at national and international levels. She served as the first Regional Coordinator of CARAM-Asia, establishing the network's regional secretariat in Kuala Lumpur in 2001. Her professional experience includes addressing HIV and mobility in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East, as well as providing technical support for the development of community-based organizations focused on mobility and HIV in Vietnam and Cambodia. She has contributed to national, regional, and international research and intervention projects, emphasizing a multidisciplinary perspective.

Verghis's research specializations include migration and health—encompassing labour migration, forced migration, human trafficking, and statelessness—health systems and health policy, access to healthcare, health education, sexual and reproductive health, community-based mental health, task shifting and community health workers, monitoring the right to health, mixed-methods research, and participatory research methods. Notable publications comprise 'COVID-19 and migrants: lessons for pandemic preparedness from the Malaysian experience' in Globalization and Health (2023), 'Citizenship and Legal Status in Healthcare: Access of Non-citizens in the ASEAN: A Comparative Case Study of Thailand and Malaysia' in Migration in Southeast Asia (2023), 'Interpersonal psychotherapy for refugees in Malaysia' (Oxford University Press, 2024), and 'Contextual approach to emotional and psychological support for Malaysian adolescents: Feasibility and pilot outcomes' in Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science (2025). In 2023, she shared the ICOPH Session Best Presentation award with colleagues. As co-founder and Director of Health Equity Initiatives, she advocates for health equity and the rights of marginalized populations, including migrants and refugees.