Ruth Margaret Gibson
Ruth Margaret Gibson is a researcher in global health who studies the effects of war, blockades, economic sanctions and foreign aid withdrawal on maternal and child health.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Gibson earned an honours Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science at the University of Toronto.[4] She completed a PhD in global health and strategic studies at the University of British Columbia.[4][1] She then undertook postdoctoral study at Stanford University in the Department of Health Policy and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, supervised by Paul H. Wise.[4][5]
Career
Before entering academia, Gibson worked for a decade in humanitarian and global health roles across eight countries.[1] She lived in Madagascar for three years following the 2009 coup there, and began researching aid sanctions in 2022.[3][5]
Gibson held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University from June 2022 to May 2024, funded by the Government of Canada.[6] She was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Stanford Health Policy department at the time of the study's publication in 2025.[4][5][7] She held a concurrent appointment at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, where she is an affiliated scholar.[5][1] She is a visiting scholar at Stanford Medicine, an affiliate in its department of pediatrics, and holds an appointment at the Center for Innovation in Global Health.[2][1]
Research
Gibson was the first author of a 2025 panel analysis of aid sanctions in The Lancet Global Health.[8] The study assessed 88 aid sanction episodes imposed on 67 low-income and middle-income countries between 1990 and 2019.[8] It estimated that aid sanctions raised infant, under-five and maternal mortality rates by 3.1%, 3.6% and 6.4% respectively.[8] The authors estimated that a five-year sanction episode would negate close to 30% of infant and under-five mortality improvements and about 60% of maternal mortality improvements.[8]
El País and Think Global Health, a publication of the Council on Foreign Relations, reported on the study.[3][7] The Lancet Global Health published an editorial in August 2025 that discussed the study alongside other research on sanctions and mortality.[9] A World Health Organization technical report on monitoring the health effects of sanctions cited the study in October 2025.[10]
Gibson and Gary L. Darmstadt wrote a 2025 comment in The Lancet Global Health on four decades of scholarship on sanctions and humanitarian outcomes.[11] She was a co-author of a 2025 correspondence in The Lancet on health safeguards under the United Nations reimposition of sanctions on Iran.[12] She was the senior author of a 2026 comment in The Lancet Global Health on medical evacuations from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.[13] She was a co-author of a 2026 editorial in the International Journal of Health Policy and Management on attacks on academic institutions in the Eastern Mediterranean.[14]
In March 2026 Gibson wrote a report for the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies on United States General License 134A and Russian energy companies.[15] She co-wrote an opinion article on sanctions and health for Al Jazeera in November 2025.[16] The New York Times cited her in March 2026 on the health effects of the United States oil blockade of Cuba.[17]
Awards and honours
Gibson received a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Government of Canada, which supported her postdoctoral research from 2022 to 2024.[6][11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Ruth Gibson". Center for International Security and Cooperation. Stanford University.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Ruth Margaret Gibson". Stanford Medicine. Stanford University.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Laboreo Longás, Silvia (21 March 2025). "Las sanciones a la ayuda exterior aumentan la mortalidad materna e infantil en los países de ingresos bajos y medios". El País (in español).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Ruth Gibson". Stanford Health Policy. Stanford University.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Duff-Brown, Beth; Hansen, Jamie (19 March 2025). "Study finds foreign aid sanctions set back decades of progress on maternal and child mortality". Stanford Report. Stanford University.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Grants and Contributions: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, Agreement Number 163900". Open Government Portal. Government of Canada.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Crowe, Hannah (17 June 2025). "The Civilian Health Costs of Aid Sanctions". Think Global Health. Council on Foreign Relations.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Gibson, Ruth M; Wise, Paul H; Dieleman, Joseph L; Yotov, Yoto V; Kirilakha, Aleksandra; Darmstadt, Gary L; Bendavid, Eran; Syropoulos, Constantinos; Barry, Michele; Bradley, Sebastien (May 2025). "The impact of aid sanctions on maternal and child mortality, 1990–2019: a panel analysis". The Lancet Global Health. 13 (5): e820–e830. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00058-0. PMID 40120594 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ "The health toll of economic sanctions". The Lancet Global Health. 13 (8): e1327. August 2025. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00278-5. PMID 40712600 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Sanctions' Health Assessment and Monitoring Support (SHAMS): technical report (PDF) (Report). World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. 16 October 2025.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Gibson, Ruth M; Darmstadt, Gary L (August 2025). "Sanctions and humanitarian outcomes: four decades of academic scholarship". The Lancet Global Health. 13 (8): e1328–e1329. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00229-3. PMID 40712601 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar; Gibson, Ruth; Reza-Farzanegan, Mohammad; Gutmann, Jerg; Majdzadeh, Reza (1 November 2025). "Health safeguards under the UN's reimposition of sanctions on Iran". The Lancet. 406 (10515): 2056–2057. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)02055-0. PMID 41176383 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Feldon, Michal; Alfarra, Ahmed; Dannenbaum, Tom; Amawi, Eyad; Danino, Barry; Sidhwa, Feroze; Gibson, Ruth (May 2026). "Reopening the humanitarian corridor from Gaza to the West Bank and East Jerusalem for medical evacuations". The Lancet Global Health. 14 (5): e681–e683. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(26)00064-1. PMID 41932348 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Karamouzian, Mohammad; McKee, Martin; Gibson, Ruth; Blanchet, Karl; Fouad, Fouad; Habibi, Roojin; Haghdoost, AliAkbar; Majrooh, Wahid; Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar; Siddiqi, Sameen; Werb, Dan; Yazdi-Feyzabadi, Vahid; Nuwayhid, Iman; Majdzadeh, Reza (2026). "Scholasticide and Population Health in the Eastern Mediterranean". International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 15. doi:10.34172/ijhpm.10011. Unknown parameter
|article-number=ignored (help) - ↑ Gibson, Ruth (25 March 2026). "Mistaken Sanction Relief: How U.S. General License 134A Benefits Russian Energy Companies Implicated in War Crimes Against Ukrainian Children". Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University.
- ↑ Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza; Gibson, Ruth; Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar (12 November 2025). "Sanctions are not a humane alternative to war". Al Jazeera.
- ↑ Augustin, Ed; Nicas, Jack (26 March 2026). "Cuban Patients Are Dying Because of U.S. Blockade, Doctors Say". The New York Times.
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