Leesa Lin specialises in decision and behavioural sciences, social epidemiology, and implementation science in public health emergency preparedness and response. Her research involves assessing public health system performance, emergency risk communications, and infectious disease outbreaks such as H1N1, MERS, and COVID-19.

Lin is a committee member of the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition and sits on the editorial boards of BMC Public Health and the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research.