Plenary Sessions

• Plenary Session I: Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EDT), Improving health equity, reducing disparities, and moving towards anti-racist prevention research with biology and context. More info
• Plenary Session II: Thursday, June 3, 2021, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EDT), Use of biological and context data and screening to guide prevention research and practice in diverse populations and settings.  More info
• Plenary Session III: Friday, June 4, 2021, 11:45 am –1:15 pm (EDT), Using biological and context data to understand mechanisms and outcomes in prevention research. More info

Invited Symposia

• Invited Symposium I: Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm (EDT), Multi-Level Opportunities to Improve Health Equity, Reduce Disparities, and Move Towards Anti-Racist Prevention Research with Biology and Context.   More info
• Invited Symposium II: Thursday, June 3, 2021, 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm (EDT), Use of biological and context data and screening to guide prevention research and practice in diverse populations and settings. More info
• Invited Symposium III: Friday, June 4, 2021, 1:30 pm –2:50 pm (EDT) Understanding the intersection of biology and context to advance child maltreatment preventive interventions More info

Plenary Session I

Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EDT)

Improving health equity, reducing disparities, and moving towards anti-racist prevention research with biology and context.

Chair: Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, RD, Program Director, Health Behaviors Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute

Speakers:

• Paula Braveman, MD, MPH,  Professor, Family Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
• Chandra L. Jackson, PhD, MS,  Stadtman Investigator, Social & Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Group, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, Director, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research

Health disparities are driven by sociocultural and physical environments, as well as behavioral and biological determinants. This plenary will highlight the appropriate use of biological and contextual measures to improve health equity and reduce disparities while moving towards anti-racist prevention research. In the first presentation, Dr. Braveman will discuss racism in the context of preterm birth (PTB), one of the strongest predictors of infant mortality and childhood disability, and a possible risk factor for adult chronic disease. She will review biological and epidemiological evidence that shows that experience of racism is a powerful upstream cause that impacts  multitude of plausible downstream factors (e.g., environmental exposures, infections, nutrition, and stress) and biological mechanisms linked to PTB. Dr. Braveman’s research shows that experiences of racism affect African American women of all levels of education and income, and are rarely measured in studies of PTB (or other health outcomes). In the second presentation, Dr. Jackson will discuss the physiology of sleep (within an historical and sociopolitical context) and its implications for social and environmental determinants of health, to illustrate how structural racism can manifest and produce inequities across a wide range of health outcomes. Sleep is a sound illustrative example given its dependence on physical and psychological security as well as the need for sleep to optimally protect and promote health through physiological and cognitive restoration. Dr. Jackson will conclude by describing potential solutions and innovative research approaches to address or mitigate the fundamental determinants of health disparities. Finally, Dr. Zenk will illustrate how the nation’s health inequities can be traced to long-standing policies that discouraged investment in communities of color. The profound consequences of these discriminatory policies for the physical and social environments of those communities persist today, with implications for health through multiple behavioral and biological pathways. There is a pressing need for rigorous evidence to inform policies that improve community environments and, in turn, health outcomes in communities of color. Dr. Zenk will discuss the collaborative research she has conducted to understand the distribution of environmental resources (e.g., healthy food, essential medicine, and green space) across communities and its impact on health. She will also share evidence her team has generated on the environmental and health impacts of policy changes and community investments designed to right historic wrongs.

Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, RD, Program Director, Health Behaviors Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute

Tanya Agurs-Collins, Ph.D., R.D., is a Program Director in the Health Behaviors Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this capacity, she is responsible for directing, coordinating, and managing a research grant portfolio in diet, physical activity, and weight-loss behavioral interventions for cancer prevention and survival. Dr. Agurs-Collins’ research focuses on race and ethnic disparities in dietary intake and obesity on cancer risk and survival. She is also interested in understanding individual genetic variation in diet and physical activity behaviors and response to weight loss interventions.
Dr. Agurs-Collins has a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences with an emphasis in epidemiology and a master’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Howard University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Agurs-Collins was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine and a nutritional epidemiologist at the Howard University Cancer Center. She is a registered dietitian with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Past BRP mentees include Sara Tamers, Doratha Byrd, and Shakira Nelson.

Paula Braveman, MD, MPH,  Professor, Family Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Paula Braveman, MD, MPH is Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Founding Director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). For more than 25 years, Dr. Braveman has studied and published extensively on health equity and the social determinants of health, and has worked to bring attention to these issues in the U.S. and internationally. Her research has focused on measuring, documenting, understanding, and addressing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities, particularly in maternal and infant health. During the 1990s she collaborated with World Health Organization staff in Geneva to develop a global initiative on equity in health and health care. She was the Research Director for a national commission on the social determinants of health in the U.S. supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with local, state, federal, and international health agencies to see rigorous research translated into practice with the goal of achieving greater equity in health. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2002 and has served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities of NIH.

Chandra L. Jackson, PhD, MS,  Stadtman Investigator, Social & Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Group, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Jackson is an Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator and earned a M.S. in Cardiovascular Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was an Alonzo Smythe Yerby postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Research Associate at the Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Center. She serves as a member of the editorial board of Sleep Health, the journal of the National Sleep Foundation, and has received several merit-based awards. For instance, she received the Charlotte Silverman Award for outstanding commitment to public health, policy, and community outreach at Johns Hopkins and an Outstanding Fellows Award at Harvard.

Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, Director, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research

Dr. Zenk was previously a Nursing Collegiate Professor in the Department of Population Health Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing, and a fellow at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy.

Dr. Zenk was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2013, received the President’s Award from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research in 2018, and was inducted into the International Nurse Researchers Hall of Fame in 2019. She has spent time as a visiting scholar in Rwanda and Australia. She earned her bachelor’s in nursing, magna cum laude, from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington; her master’s degrees in public health nursing and community health sciences from UIC; and her doctorate in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her predoctoral training was in psychosocial factors in mental health and illness, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Her dissertation examined racial and socioeconomic inequities in food access in metropolitan Detroit. She completed postdoctoral training in UIC’s Institute for Health Research and Policy’s Cancer Education and Career Development Program, funded by the National Cancer Institute, in 2006.

Dr. Zenk’s own research focuses on social inequities and health with a goal of identifying effective, multilevel approaches to improve health and eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities. Her research portfolio has included NIH-supported work into urban food environments, community health solutions and veterans’ health. Through pioneering research on the built environment and food deserts, Dr. Zenk and her colleagues increased national attention to the problem of inadequate access to healthful foods in low-income and Black neighborhoods.

They have since examined the role of community environments in health and health disparities. Recognizing that restricting empirical attention to the communities where people live and not the other communities where they spend time may misdirect interventions, Dr. Zenk led early research adopting GPS tracking to study broader “activity space” environments in relation to health behaviors. She and her colleagues have also evaluated whether the effectiveness of behavioral interventions differs depending on environmental context and, most recently, how environmental and personal factors interact to affect health. This work has leveraged a variety of technologies and emerging data resources such as electronic health records. Energy balance-related behaviors and conditions have been a major focus.

Plenary Session II

Thursday, June 3, 2021, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EDT)

Use of biological and context data and screening to guide prevention research and practice in diverse populations and settings. 

Chair: Amie Bettencourt, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences-Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Speakers:

• Nicole Bush, PhD, Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
• Neeta Thakur, MD,  Assistant Professor, Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
• Dawn K. Wilson, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina

This plenary features three presenters who will share their perspectives on this year’s special conference theme, Using Biological and Context Data for Screening in Prevention Research. The session will begin with Dr. Neeta Thakur who is a pulmonary and critical care physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Her expertise is in the influence of biologic, social and environmental stressors on asthma and COPD among vulnerable populations. Dr. Thakur will discuss screening for adverse childhood experiences, including considerations, limitations, and lessons learned from the development and implementation of ACEs screening tools in clinical settings and how screening can inform clinical decision-making as well as future directions for this work. The next speaker is Dr. Nicole Bush who is the Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health at University of California San Francisco. Her work focuses on the interplay between children’s biology and early stressful experiences as predictors of current and later mental and physical health outcomes. Dr. Bush will discuss the potential utility of biomarkers for detecting risk and understanding resilience and the challenges and considerations in implementing bio-behavioral screening to inform prevention. The third speaker is Dr. Dawn K. Wilson who is a Professor and Director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Group in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on development and testing of theory-based interventions for obesity prevention and health promotion among low-income, ethnic minority populations. Dr. Wilson will discuss the clustering of physical, psychological, and contextual risks for obesity, the importance of early detection and prevention, limitations of existing outcome measures and screening tools, and future directions for integrating biological, contextual, and weight related data to guide a comprehensive approach to obesity prevention. A panel discussion will follow that will provide further opportunity to discuss important ethical and end-user considerations in implementing biological and context screening and using these data to inform prevention.

Amie Bettencourt, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences-Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Dr. Bettencourt is a faculty member at Johns Hopkins in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is also a clinical child psychologist in the Psychiatric Mental Health Program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Dr. Bettencourt’s research interests broadly focus on advancing knowledge of the risk and protective factors for and interventions designed to address children’s disruptive behavior problems.  Dr. Bettencourt received her Ph.D. in Clinical Child Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She completed her predoctoral internship training at La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago and went on to complete her postdoctoral fellowship in prevention science in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Nicole Bush, PhD, Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Bush is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and of Pediatrics.She is the Director (Division Chief) of the Division of Developmental Medicine and the Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health.

She is an M-PI for the ECHO National Children’s Study PATHWAYS cohort (NIH) and a site PI for the ECHO NYU Center cohort (NIH), the Co-Scientific Director of the CANDLE study (Urban Child Institute; NIH) the PI of the SEED prenatal programming study (R01), the UCSF PI of the TIDES multi-site prenatal programming study (R01), the PI of the PAWS-Genetics Substudy (RWJF), and the PI of the CTRP-HEALTH Trauma and Biomarkers study (CTSI; RWJF; JPB Foundation).

Dr. Bush’s research focuses on the manner in which early life psychosocial environments, beginning in utero, affect developmental trajectories of health and disease across the life course. She investigates the ways in which contextual experiences of adversity, ranging from socioeconomic status to interpersonal violence, become biologically embedded by changing children’s developing physiologic systems and organs, thereby shaping individual differences that influence development and mental health in childhood and later life. Her work focuses on identifying points for prevention of disease as well as protective factors and interventions that promote resilience, with special attention to vulnerable populations and the unique interplay between maternal-child health across generations.

Neeta Thakur, MD,  Assistant Professor, Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Neeta Thakur is a pulmonary and critical care physician at UCSF who examines the role of social and environmental stressors on asthma and COPD in vulnerable populations. Better definitions of the mechanism of how social and environmental stressors impact asthma and COPD will allow for the development of targeted interventions and therapies to improve related outcomes in vulnerable populations. Dr. Thakur completed a dual degree program in public health and medicine at the University of Arizona focused on community health and program development and evaluation. She came to UCSF for residency in Internal Medicine and stayed to complete her Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship and has expertise in clinical research methods, social epidemiology, and implementation sciences. Dr. Thakur’s experience as a clinician, and now Medical Director of the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) Chest Clinic, gives her first-hand insight on how social and environmental stress negatively affect asthma and COPD outcomes and practical knowledge of the existing barriers to adoption of evidence-based interventions into practice.

Dr. Thakur’s NIH supported research focuses on: 1) defining obstructive lung disease phenotypes that exist in racially and ethnically diverse communities, 2) identifying individuals at high risk for poor outcomes using a risk profile composed of genetic, biomarker, clinical, and socio-environmental data, and 3) developing targeted interventions aimed at social and environmental factors to improve asthma and COPD in high risk groups.

Dawn K. Wilson, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina

Dr. Wilson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of South Carolina (USC). Her nationally funded program of research has focused on developing innovative, theoretically-based interventions for health promotion in minority adolescents and their families. Her theoretical approach integrates bio-ecological models, family systems, and motivational approaches for understanding social and environmental influences of long-term health behavior change. Her current trials are evaluating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of social marketing interventions on increasing safety and access for walking in high crime, under-served communities. Her recent projects also integrate cultural and family-based approaches to tailoring effective weight loss programs in minority adolescents.

Plenary Session III

Friday, June 4, 2021, 11:45 am –1:15 pm (EDT)

Using biological and context data to understand mechanisms and outcomes in prevention research.

Chair: Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD, Research Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Ruth Young Center for Families and Children, University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD.

Speakers:

• Elysia Davis PhD, Professor, Director, Neurodevelopmental Research Program, Department of Psychology, University of Denver
• Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD, William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Robin Nusslock, PhD, Professor, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

Disparities in health and health care due to adversity can affect not only the groups facing poorer outcomes but may limit the overall quality of care and health for the wider population resulting in unnecessary costs. An understanding of how these disparities are influenced by the intersection of biological mechanisms and the environmental context is necessary. This plenary session shines a light on the impact of health and health care disparities across the lifespan and their subsequent impact in relation to biology and context mechanisms. Our three presenters will discuss the impact of adversity and/or neighborhood context on various stages of human development. Dr. Elysia Davis’ research focuses on understanding the pathways by which prenatal experiences influence developmental trajectories through early adulthood and ways that early intervention can benefit mothers and their children. Dr. Robin Nusslock has posited a neuro-immune network model to describe the neurophysiological impact of early-life adversity on physical and emotional health across the lifespan. Finally, Dr. Darrell Gaskin’s research seeks to identify and understand barriers to care for vulnerable populations; and to develop and promote policies and practices that will improve access to care for the poor, minority and other vulnerable populations, and eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in healthcare.

Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD, Research Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Ruth Young Center for Families and Children, University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD.

Nadine M Finigan-Carr, Ph.D., is a prevention research scientist focused on the application of behavioral and social science perspectives to research on contemporary health problems, especially those that disproportionately affect people of color. Her scholarship is grounded in theories and methods found primarily in the field of health behavior change among individuals and the environments that support or impede chronic disease prevention or management, injury, and violence. She is an internationally recognized expert on minor human trafficking and sexual exploitation having collaborated with colleagues in the UK, Canada, and the Caribbean. In 2018, she presented a TedX talk titled, Child Prostitutes Don’t Exist. She holds dual appointments at the University of Maryland, Baltimore – Research Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Associate Professor in the School of Medicine. Currently, Dr. Finigan-Carr is the Deputy Director of the Ruth Young Center for Maryland at the Institute for Innovation & Implementation where she leads the Prevention of Adolescent Risks Initiative. She is the Principal Investigator of research projects at both the state and federal levels designed to intervene with system involved youth – those in foster care or the juvenile justice system. These youth have a double vulnerability – adolescence, a critical stage marked by increased risk for negative social and behavioral outcomes including aggression and sexual risk behaviors; and, being removed from their families of origin. Dr Finigan-Carr is the author of Linking Health and Education for African American Students’ Success (Routledge Press). She has served as special guest editor for the Journal of Negro Education (2015) and the Journal of Violence and Victims (2020). She also serves as a Commissioner of Community Relations in the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Wage Enforcement. Dr Finigan-Carr can be reached by email at nfinigan-carr@ssw.umaryland.edu or via twitter @doctorNayAKA.

 

Elysia Poggi Davis PhD, Professor, Director, Neurodevelopmental Research Program, Department of Psychology, University of Denver

Dr. Elysia Poggi Davis is a Professor of Psychology. In collaboration with her students, she conducts a program of research evaluates the way that biological and behavioral processes during the prenatal period are incorporated into the developmental program and the influence this has on physical and mental health across the lifespan. Professor Davis’ research contributed to an important shift in our understanding of health and wellbeing. It now is evident that in order to understand individual differences in health and development it is essential to consider the fetal experiences. The prospective and longitudinal studies that she has conducted provide compelling evidence that prenatal maternal stress and stress hormones have profound and lasting consequences for fetal development, birth outcome, and subsequent child and adult health and disease risk. Professor Davis has led research program that has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for the past 15 years and she has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters.

These interdisciplinary research projects involve collaborations with students and faculty from disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, social work and obstetrics. Ongoing research relies on collaboration with Denver area hospitals including integration of mental health treatment into obstetric practice. These research studies provide multiple training opportunities for postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students to develop research their interests in ways that are clinically meaningful and to gain grant and paper writing experience.

Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD, William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Darrell J. Gaskin is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. Dr. Gaskin is a health services researcher and health economist who is internationally known for his expertise in health disparities, access to care for vulnerable populations, and safety net hospitals.  He seeks to identify and understand barriers to care for vulnerable populations; and to develop and promote policies and practices that will improve access to care for the poor, minority and other vulnerable populations, and eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in healthcare.  His current projects explore the relationship between “place” and healthcare disparities and examine racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in hospital care.

Dr. Gaskin’s has published in the leading health services and public health research journals, including American Journal of Public Health, HSR, Health Affairs, Inquiry, Medical Care, Medical Care Research and Review, and Social Science and Medicine.  Currently, he serves on the Editorial Boards of HSR, Medical Care and Medical Care Research and Review.  He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth and a member of the Center for Health Policy Development Board, the board of directors for the National Academy of State Health Policy.  His advice is sought in federal and state health policy. He was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Commission on the Budget Deficit, Economic Crisis, and Wealth Creation. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Health Insurance Plan, the state’s high-risk pool.  He served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange Commission.

Robin Nusslock, PhD, Professor, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

Robin Nusslock, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, where he also holds appointments in Neurobiology, Psychiatry, and Medical Social Sciences. He is Director of the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, where he also serves as interim Director of Cells to Society (C2S): Center on Social Disparities and Health. His research examines how the brain creates emotion and how the brain and body are affected by stress and adversity. A current focus of his research are the mechanisms through which early life adversity (e.g., poverty) “gets under the skin” to generate health disparities across the life span. Nusslock has published over seventy journal articles and book chapters, and has received a number of honors and awards for his research, including the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science. His research on the neuroscience of mental and physical health has been featured in both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

 

Invited Symposium I

Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm (EDT)

Multi-Level Opportunities to Improve Health Equity, Reduce Disparities, and Move Towards Anti-Racist Prevention Research with Biology and Context.

Chair: Denise Vidot, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami

Speakers:

• Shannon Guillot-Wright, PhD, Assistant Professor, Ob/Gyn and Director of Health Policy Research, Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
• Bonnie Nagel, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Division of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
• Monica Webb Hooper, PhD, Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Prevention scientists have the opportunity to explicitly improve health equity, reduce disparities, and move towards anti-racist prevention research with biology and context at the individual-, community-, and policy-level. The National Institutes of Health recognize and identify racism and discrimination as contributors to poor health outcomes among health disparate populations; yet are not typically included in biomedical research. Evidence suggests that populations with higher prevalence of health disparities also report a higher prevalence of exposure to discrimination over the trajectory of their life course. This invited symposium highlights opportunities to leverage biology and context at multiple levels within the socioecological model to improve health equity, reduce disparities, and move towards anti-racist prevention research. Specifically, three speakers will discuss their research and associated programs using biological and context data at the individual-, community-, and policy-level. The first speaker, Dr. Monica Webb-Hooper is an internationally recognized translational behavioral scientist, clinical health psychologist, and Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). Her program of community engaged research focuses on understanding multilevel factors and biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying modifiable risk factors and the development of community responsive and culturally specific interventions. She will discuss strategies to improve health equity, particularly within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second speaker, Dr. Shannon Guillot-Wright is an assistant professor and Director of Health Policy Research at the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Her program of research focuses on individual, community, and structural factors that influence structural violence and occupational health outcomes for migrant workers. She will discuss racial equity research from a health policy perspective using evidence from her team’s research methodology, ethnography. The third speaker, Dr. Bonnie Nagel, is the Sr. Associate Vice President for Research and Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Principal Investigator at Oregon Health & Science University. She also serves as the ABCD Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Taskforce Chair. In this symposium, she will discuss the ABCD study, describe the mission of the JEDI Workgroup, and discuss efforts to satisfy mission to promote JEDI at all levels of the study, including biological data collection. Overall, the symposium will provide an introduction to current initiatives and opportunities available to improve health equity, reduce disparities, and move towards anti-racist prevention research with biology and context.

Denise Vidot, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shannon Guillot-Wright, PhD, Assistant Professor, Ob/Gyn and Director of Health Policy Research, Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

Shannon Guillot-Wright, PhD is an Assistant Professor, Ob/Gyn and Director of Health Policy Research, Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Her program of research focuses on structural violence, with an emphasis on occupational health equity and evidence use in policymaking. She is particularly interested in understanding power, influence, and social change. Her research methodology is ethnographic, including photovoice and digital storytelling. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Filipino migrant seafarers to understand how health inequities are embodied and produced as well as exploring the use of research evidence in the 116^th U.S. Congress. Dr. Guillot-Wright is currently working with migrant fishers in the Gulf Coast, studying how social, structural, and political economic factors influence health. She has published on structural violence, including social determinants of health, health policy, migrant health, and racial/ethnic health inequities in international and national journals and received research support from the CDC, Texas Medical Center’s Health Policy Institute, the State of Texas – Office of the Governor, Southwest Agriculture Center, and numerous national Foundations. She was a selected artist for the National Academy of Medicine’s Visualize Health Equity gallery and her work has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Texas Monthly, and TIME Magazine. She is the co-founder of the photovoice project TWELVE, is the co-founder of the Health in All Policies Collaborative ACCEs to Assets, is a Board Member of the American Public Health Association, and sits on the Advisory Board for the Children’s Defense Fund – Texas. Dr. Guillot-Wright has her PhD in the Medical Humanities from the University of Texas Medical Branch, MA in Human Rights from Columbia University, and completed her postdoctoral training at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State.

Bonnie Nagel, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Division of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University

Dr. Nagel is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University, where she serves as the Senior Associate Vice President for Research, Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry, and directs the Developmental Brain Imaging Laboratory. Dr. Nagel’s research focuses on adolescent brain and cognitive development in healthy and at-risk populations. Her lab has been conducting longitudinal neuroimaging studies for more than a decade, with aims toward identifying neurobiological markers of risk and resilience for psychopathology, including addiction and depression, and hopes of ultimately informing more targeted intervention and prevention efforts. She is a Principal Investigator on several federally-funded National multi-site projects toward that end, including the National Consortium on Alcohol & Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD). In addition to serving as the OHSU ABCD site director, she serves on the ABCD Neurocognitive and Mental Health Assessment Workgroups, and also chairs the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Taskforce.

Monica Webb Hooper, PhD, Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). She works closely with the Director, Dr. Pérez-Stable, and the leadership, to oversee all aspects of the institute and to support the implementation of the science visioning recommendations to improve minority health, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity.

Dr. Webb Hooper is an internationally recognized translational behavioral scientist and clinical health psychologist. She has dedicated her career to the scientific study of minority health and racial/ethnic disparities, focusing on chronic illness prevention and health behavior change. Her program of community engaged research focuses on understanding multilevel factors and biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco use and stress processes, and the development of community responsive and culturally specific interventions. Her goal is to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge and disseminate findings into communities with high need.

Before joining NIMHD, Dr. Webb Hooper was a Professor of Oncology, Family Medicine & Community Health and Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She was also Associate Director for Cancer Disparities Research and Director of the Office of Cancer Disparities Research in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Webb Hooper completed her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of South Florida, internship in medical psychology from the University of Florida Health Sciences Center, and her Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami.

Invited Symposium II

Thursday, June 3, 2021, 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm (EDT)

Using biological and context data for screening in prevention research.

Chair: Jacqueline Lloyd, PhD,  MSW, Senior Advisor for Disease Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director, Office of Disease Prevention

Speakers:

• Danielle Dick, PhD, Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Molecular Genetics, Department of Psychology, College of Humanities & Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University
• Rachel Gold, PhD, MPH, Epidemiologist and Health Services Researcher, Kaiser Permanente, Center for Health Research
• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
• Michelle Sarche, PhD, Associate Professor, Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver

The use of biological and context data for screening and targeting preventive interventions to the particular needs of individuals is a promising approach for tailoring interventions and improving outcomes. For this invited symposium under the special conference theme, Using Biological and Context Data for Screening in Prevention Research, four speakers will discuss their research developing and using biological and context data for screening with diverse populations and settings. The first speaker, Dr. Danielle Dick is Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose research focuses on integration of genetic epidemiological findings into prevention programming. Dr. Dick will discuss her team’s work developing a college alcohol prevention program that utilizes genetically influenced pathways of risk in a personalized feedback program. She will discuss how her work sets the stage for delivery of genetic feedback to individuals and important unanswered questions at the intersection of genetics and health disparities. The second speaker is Dr. Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University whose research foci include temperament and emotion, genetic-environment interplay, psychosocial moderation of genetic risk, and specificity of risk for mental and physical health.  Dr. Lemery-Chalfant will discuss how the impact of early prevention might be substantially increased by utilizing a more personalized approached based on initial screening. She will discuss how contemporary genetics offers a path forward for developing effective screeners, and the potential use of a short parent- or self-report screener that taps into sensitivity to the environment to guide prevention. The third speaker is Dr. Michelle Sarche, an Associate Professor in the Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. She has been working with tribal communities for more than 20 years to conduct research on parenting and children’s early development. Dr. Sarche will discuss results from a qualitative study of developmental screening in Indigenous early care and education, sharing lessons learned about promises and pitfalls of developmental screening in Indigenous communities. She will describe the co-creative approach her team uses to shed light on the historical and contemporary contexts that are important to consider when implementing screening with young Indigenous children. The fourth speaker is Dr. Rachel Gold, an epidemiologist and health services researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research. Her research explores how health information technology can help address health disparities in safety net clinic settings. Dr. Gold will discuss the social risks and determinants she sees in her work in safety net clinic populations, how social risks and determinants affect physical health outcomes, interventions for addressing social risks and barriers to implementing these interventions in clinical settings, and clinical decision support tools that can inform  implementation. The symposium will provide an opportunity to discuss ethical, research, and practice considerations in implementing and using biological and context data for screening, prevention research and practice.

Jacqueline Lloyd, PhD,  MSW, Senior Advisor for Disease Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director, Office of Disease Prevention

Dr. Jacqueline Lloyd joined the ODP in February 2020 as a Senior Advisor for Disease Prevention. In this role, she leads efforts to promote collaborative prevention research projects and facilitate coordination of such projects across the NIH and with other public and private entities.

Prior to joining the ODP, Dr. Lloyd worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the Prevention Research Branch (PRB) for more than 11 years. She joined NIDA as a Health Scientist Administrator and Program Official. She served as Deputy Branch Chief of the PRB from 2012–2017 and as Acting Branch Chief from 2017–2018. She led and served as Lead Project Scientist for the Helping To End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Preventing Opioid Use Disorder in Older Adolescents and Young Adults Initiative from 2018–2020. She also oversaw a portfolio of research that included drug abuse and HIV prevention in at-risk adolescents and adults.

Before NIDA, Dr. Lloyd was an Assistant Professor at Temple University in the School of Social Administration and prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland in the School of Social Work. Dr. Lloyd’s own research included testing community-based youth prevention programs; research on sexual and HIV risk behaviors and substance use in youth; and examination of the role of family, peer, and social network contextual factors on risk behaviors and intervention outcomes.

Dr. Lloyd received her Ph.D. in 2000 in drug dependence epidemiology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She also holds a master’s degree in social work from University of Connecticut.

Danielle Dick, PhD, Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Molecular Genetics, Department of Psychology, College of Humanities & Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University

Danielle M. Dick, Ph.D. is the distinguished Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Human & Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she directs a research institute on behavioral and emotional health in young people. Dr. Dick leads an international consortium aimed at identifying the genetic basis of impulsive disorders, and she is one of the project leaders of the largest study of the genetics of alcohol use disorders in the United States. Dr. Dick has received grant funding in excess of 25 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. She has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, and has won numerous national and international awards for her work. Dr. Dick’s research focuses on characterizing the genetic basis of substance use and mental health challenges, understanding how risk unfolds across development and in conjunction with the environment, and using that information to develop more tailored and effective prevention and intervention.

 

Rachel Gold, PhD, MPH, Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research

Rachel Gold, PhD, MPH, is an Investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research, with a joint appointment at the OCHIN community health information network, where she is the Lead Research Scientist. Dr. Gold’s work centers on research conducted at OCHIN’s national network of safety net clinics. Her primary research interest is determining how electronic health records can be harnessed to improve rates of guideline-concordant primary care and reduce health disparities in the safety net setting, with a focus on optimizing the implementation of EHR-based clinical decision support tools. Dr. Gold is PI of several NIH-funded studies, involving cross-setting implementation of a quality improvement initiative from Kaiser Permanente into community health centers, which involves direct comparison of the effectiveness of several implementation support strategies. Most relevant to SONNET, she leads a study of how to help community clinics collect and act on information about patients’ social determinants of health, using EHR-based strategies and tools. She also serves / served as co-Investigator on studies evaluating: the effects of parental insurance coverage on children’s health care access and outcomes; the use of EHRs to support safety net clinics’ efforts to help their pediatric patients stay insured; the feasibility of applying national pediatric care quality measures in safety net clinics’ EHR data; and strategies for helping safety net clinics implement team-based perinatal depression identification and care.

Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University

Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant is a professor of psychology and heads the Child Emotion Center-Arizona Twin Project in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. Dr. Humphreys received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology and has expertise in infant and early childhood mental health. Her research focuses on characterizing the early environment and examining links to later life outcomes. In addition, she conducts basic and applied research with the aim of improving children’s early life. She has received recognition in her field, including being awarded the Janet T. Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, as well as being selected for the internationally competitive Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship. Professor Lemery-Chalfant joined the faculty at ASU in 2001.

Michelle Sarche, PhD, Associate Professor, Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native HealthIndian Center, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver

Michelle Sarche, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Colorado School of Public Health, Department of Community and Behavioral Health, an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, and tribal citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe.  Dr. Sarche has worked with American Indian and Alaska Native communities for over 25 years.  Her work has focused on children’s development, parenting, and early care environments such as Head Start, Home Visiting, and Child Care. Her current projects include the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, the Native Children’s Research Exchange, the American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey Workgroup, the Multi-site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting, and two projects focused on alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention among Native women.  Dr. Sarche also co-directs the Native Children’s Research Exchange Scholars program which supports the career development of American Indian and Alaska Native and other early career researchers whose work focuses on Native children’s development.  Dr. Sarche’s work is supported by funding from the Administration for Children and Families, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Invited Symposium III

Friday, June 4, 2021, 1:30 pm –2:50 pm (EDT)

Understanding the intersection of biology and context to advance child maltreatment preventive interventions

Chair: Brittany Cooper, PhD, Associate Professor of Human Development, Youth and Family Extension Specialist, and the Director of the Prevention Science PhD program, Washington State University

Speakers:

• Brenda Jones Harden, PhD, Alison Richman Professor for Children and Families, University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD
• Kathyrn L. Humphreys, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
• Uma Rao, MBBS, Professor and Vice Chair for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatry & Human Behavior, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine

Child maltreatment represents a significant risk factor for developing numerous mental and physical health problems. Evidence suggests that biological embedding due to early adversity leads to poor child health outcomes that may have lifelong impacts into adulthood. Researchers tend to be siloed in doing this work – focusing on either the biological impacts of maltreatment OR on the prevention of child maltreatment in the interpersonal social context. This session will discuss the work currently being done by researchers within these areas and how we can bridge the gap between them. Dr. Brenda Jones Harden’s research examines the developmental and mental health needs of young children who have been maltreated or have experienced other forms of trauma – as well as the development of interventions aimed at preventing maladaptive outcomes in these populations. Her talk will explore a developmental and public health approach to preventive intervention, with a specific focus on preventing maladaptive outcomes through early childhood programs. Dr. Kathryn Humphreys studies the downstream effects of adverse experiences early in life on later psychopathology, including through altering neurobiology. Her talk will explore how heightened plasticity renders the developing brain more vulnerable to adversity, and the potential differences in the impact of threatening experiences compared to deprivation. Broadly, this work will highlight the importance of considering both developmental timing and type of experience in mapping potential outcomes following adversity. Finally, Dr. Uma Rao studies adolescent depressive disorders, including neurobiological and psychosocial predictors of onset and the longitudinal clinical course in youth with familial and/or environmental risk, and translational intervention research. Her talk will focus on the effects of abuse on amygdala reactivity and amygdala-prefrontal cortex functional connectivity and discuss somatic treatments to improve these deficits, such as real-time fMRI. She will also discuss how decoded neurofeedback with rt-fMRI can be used in conjunction with trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to reduce anxiety associated with the recall and processing of traumatic memories and minimize treatment dropout. Overall, this session aims to invigorate the conversation regarding how researchers can use biological and context data in concert to advance a more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms and outcomes of effective child maltreatment preventive interventions.

Brittany Cooper, PhD, Associate Professor of Human Development, Youth and Family Extension Specialist, and the Director of the Prevention Science PhD program, Washington State University

Dr. Brittany Cooper is Associate Professor of Human Development, Youth and Family Extension Specialist, and the Director of the Prevention Science PhD program at Washington State University. Dr. Cooper’s research, teaching, and outreach centers around the translation of prevention science for public health impact. For nearly a decade, she has collaborated with federal, state, and other community stakeholders to improve the field’s understanding of how best to support evidence-based prevention programs in diverse community settings.

Brenda Jones Harden, PhD, Alison Richman Professor for Children and Families, University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD

Brenda Jones Harden is the Alison Richman Professor for Children and Families, at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She directs the Prevention and Early Adversity Research Laboratory, where she and her research team examine the developmental and mental health needs of young children who have experienced early adversity, particularly those who have been maltreated or have experienced other forms of trauma. A particular focus is preventing maladaptive outcomes in these populations through early childhood programs. She has conducted numerous evaluations of such programs, including parenting interventions, early care and education, home visiting services, and infant mental health programs. Dr. Jones Harden has consulted with and provided training to numerous organizations regarding effective home visiting, infant and early childhood mental health, reflective supervision, infant/toddler development and intervention, and working with high-risk parents. She began her career as a child welfare social worker, working in foster care, special needs adoption, and prevention services, the latter of which became her long-term practice and research focus. She is a scientist-practitioner who uses research to improve the quality and effectiveness of child and family services and to inform child and family policy. She received a PhD in developmental and clinical psychology from Yale University and a Master’s in Social Work from New York University.

Kathyrn L. Humphreys, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

Dr. Humphreys received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology and has expertise in infant and early childhood mental health. Her research focuses on characterizing the early environment and examining links to later life outcomes. In addition, she conducts basic and applied research with the aim of improving children’s early life. She has received recognition in her field, including being awarded the Janet T. Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, as well as being selected for the internationally competitive Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship.

 

Uma Rao, MBBS, Professor and Vice Chair for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatry & Human Behavior, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine

Dr. Rao is Professor and Vice Chair for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She is also the Director of Education and Research in Psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).

Dr. Rao has been involved in mood and substance use disorders research for over 30 years. Her primary areas of interest are adolescent depressive and addictive disorders, including neurobiological and psychosocial predictors of onset and longitudinal clinical course in youth with familial and/or environmental risk, developmental/ethnic influences on the phenomenology and neurobiological processes, and translational intervention research. Recently, she has extended her work to include physical/medical conditions that frequently co-occur with these disorders, specifically obesity and pain, from a health disparities perspective.

Dr. Rao has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health as well as private foundations for this work. She has published numerous research articles and has received awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Indo-American Psychiatric Association and community agencies for scientific and volunteer contributions.