Tara McKay

Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
Assistant Professor of Health Policy; Affiliated Faculty, Department of Sociology; Affiliated Faculty, Program for LGBTQ Health; Affiliated Faculty, Tennessee Center for Aids Research; Affiliated Faculty, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health

Dr. McKay (she/her) is Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society and Health Policy (secondary), Director of the LGBTQ+ Policy Lab, and Associate Director of the Center for Research on Inequality and Health at Vanderbilt University. She is a sociologist and demographer who is nationally recognized for her expertise in the field of LGBTQ+ population health, policy, and aging. She is a co-founder of the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab, which was recently recognized by the National Institutes of Health for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in health research. She has expertise in LGBTQ+ health and aging, HIV policy, and firearm injury. Her research focuses on the social and policy drivers of health among LGBTQ+ people in the US and African contexts. She serves as PI on one of the only longitudinal panel studies of LGBTQ+ older adults in the US and as MPI on a study of the effects of Tennessee’s decision to reject federal funding for HIV prevention on HIV prevention and continuum of care outcomes (PI April Pettit, VUMC).