Faculty and Staff Contact Information Cynthia S. Minkovitz, MD, MPP, is director of the Women's and Children's Health Policy Center (WCHPC) and a professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. Dr. Minkovitz also holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics. In addition to her clinical credentials, Dr. Minkovitz was trained in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her research activities focus on improving systems of preventive care for children and understanding maternal influences on children’s well-being and receipt of health care services. Dr. Minkovitz is leading an NHLBI funded study examining how variation in state newborn screening programs influences survival of children with sickle cell disease. As part of the Dyson Initiative National Evaluation, she is examining the national context of efforts to enhance training in Community Pediatrics. Dr. Minkovitz also led the 5 ½ year follow up for the national evaluation of Healthy Steps for Young Children. At Johns Hopkins, she received an “Advising, Mentoring, and Teaching Recognition Award” in 2001 and 2003 and serves on the Nemours Health and Prevention Services Advisory Council. Bernard Guyer, MD, MPH, serves as principal investigator for the Healthy Steps Evaluation Project funded by The Commonwealth Fund, which is conducted under the auspices of the WCHPC. Dr. Guyer is the Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children's Health. He is a physician trained in both preventive medicine and pediatrics, and held public health faculty positions for over 10 years. Dr. Guyer served seven years as director of state MCH program in Massachusetts and five years as a CDC medical epidemiologist with national and international service. He chaired or was a member of several national committees on childhood injury prevention and outreach for prenatal care, and MCH/Medicaid Technical Advisory Group, respectively. Dr. Guyer was appointed membership in the Institute of Medicine. Specific research interests include MCH policy, practice and financing, childhood injury prevention, perinatal health, childhood immunization, and early childhood development and evaluation. Holly A. Grason, MA, is an associate professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ms. Grason served as Director of the Women's and Children's Health Policy Center (WCHPC) from 1993 until September 2006. As Director, she oversaw center development and multidisiplinary faculty research and product development in the application of research to the practice of public MCH program implementation. Ms. Grason's graduate training is in the field of child development. She worked in the Maryland-MCH Program for 7 years before working at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs from 1988-1993, where she served as Deputy Director. Ms. Grason's key MCH contributions center on the development of frameworks for describing and analyzing issues related to roles, organization, and functions of public programs serving women and children. These frameworks address a range of concerns, including financing, quality of care, women's health, and the continuum of public-private sector MCH services and activities at the community, state, and national levels. These frameworks have provided the basis for development of policy documents, measurement tools, and educational materials for MCH program managers, as well as publications in the juried literature. Ms. Grason led the effort to develop and co-authored the MCH Program Functions Framework and Capacity Assessment for State Title V Programs - CAST 5, and frequently provides technical consultations to state Title V programs across the country. Ms. Grason's current passions include strengthening the intersections between MCH science, education, practice, and workforce development.
Donna M. Strobino, PhD, is a professor in and deputy chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and is trained as a demographer. Her areas of research include perinatal health as it relates to racial and maternal age differences in newborn and infant mortality and morbidity, the evaluation of perinatal programs and services, the impact of managed care on perinatal service delivery, and child health data systems. Dr. Strobino is a member of the core faculty of the WCHPC as well as a member of the Healthy Steps Evaluation Team. Dr. Strobino also provides extensive consultation to Title V MCH programs and is a member of several committees including the Data and Surveillance Committee for the Maryland Commission on Infant Mortality Prevention, and on the MCHB Research Review Committee. Wanda Nicholson, MD, MPH, is an associate professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a Fellow in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, and health services researcher in women's and perinatal health. Dr. Nicholson completed her medical degree, internship, and residency in obstetrics and gynecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of California at San Francisco and obtained a Masters degree in Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Nicholson's research foci include the identification of risk factors for chronic disease and the design of clinical and behavioral interventions to address gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity in child-bearing and post reproductive-age women. Dr. Nicholson was the first author of the Johns Hopkins Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) evidence report entitled "Therapeutic Management, Delivery, Risk Factors and Postpartum Surveillance of Gestational Diabetes," the results of which are being disseminated through the Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Sciences. Through funding from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), she developed a postpartum-specific weight loss intervention, First WIND (Weight-loss Interventions after Delivery), for women at risk for type 2 diabetes, which is currently being piloted among urban-based women in Baltimore City. She has also led a prospective cohort study of childbearing women and their offspring funded by the NIDDK. Dr. Nicholson is a member of the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), the ACOG National Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women, and the CDC Public Health Working Group on Preconception Care. Sai Ma, PhD, is an assistant scientist in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research interest includes social determinants of early childhood health and development, paternal roles in child development, family-, school- and neighborhood-level influence on child physical and mental well-being, and health disparities across racial and ethnic groups. She is also interested in health and social consequences of aging in China as well as China’s health care system reform. She received her doctorate degree from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in March, 2007. Anne W. Riley, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and holds joint appointments in the Department of Mental Health in the School of Public Health and in the Department of Psychiatry in the Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Riley is a clinical psychologist, health services researcher, and a prevention researcher with expertise in program implementation and instrument development. Her research is focused on ways to address the needs of families affected by maternal depression, the impact of medical disorders on family members, and the role of health and mental health on functioning, school engagement and academic outcomes of children as they move from elementary to middle school. She is working with other experts at the University of Maryland to implement and evaluate a third-generation computerized outcomes evaluation system to improve the quality of treatment services for youth with mental health problems. She led the development of child and parent-report questionnaires to assess the health-related quality of life of children and adolescents, the CHIP-CE (Child Health and Illness Profile-Child Edition), which is being used to evaluate the health and clinical outcomes of children in more than 20 countries. She and colleagues at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are leading the development of a comprehensive measure of child and adolescent health that uses a computerized adaptive technology so that children and parents can quickly provide a precise assessment of the child's health. The development is being supported through the NIH Roadmap PROMIS initiative to produce a standard health assessment tool that all researchers and evaluators can use. Dr. Riley co-leads a training program funded by NIMH to prepare doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows for a research career in child and family mental health services research. Dr. Riley’s service work is focused on a state-wide advocacy organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and families through policy analysis, advocacy, and legislation. Lisa Dubay, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Dubay is a health policy analyst with more than 20 years of experience evaluaing major federal and state health policy initiatives. Prior to joining Hopkins she was a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute. Dr. Dubay’s research expertise centers on assessing the impact of public policies on insurance coverage, access to care, and the health of low-income populations. Dr. Dubay has lead major federal and foundation evaluations of expansions of the Medicaid program to pregnant women and children, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the movement to managed care under the Medicaid. Dr. Dubay has also examined the influence of malpractice fears on the practice of defensive medicine. Dr. Dubay’s current research interest includes understanding the pathways that lead to socio-economic and racial disparities in child health, well-being, and psychological and cognitive functioning. Kevin Frick, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, JHSPH. He earned a PhD in economics and health services research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Frick’s work has focused on producing policy-relevant analyses. He combines his knowledge of economic analysis with clinical and epidemiological insights from his colleagues to produce cost-effectiveness analyses that bring the tools of economic decision making to policy-makers. He has contributed to a large number of such projects, including community-based interventions such as the Baltimore City Healthy Start program, the Experience Corps volunteer program for older adults, and an intervention to increase breastfeeding duration among low income women. Dr. Frick also has explored the special issues around quality of life and productivity loss measurement for women in cost-effectiveness studies and is working on a project projecting lifetime costs associated with childhood obesity. Barry Solomon, MD, MPH, is Medical Director of the Harriet Lane Clinic and an assistant professor in the Division of General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The Harriet Lane Clinic is a large academic-based urban primary care practice which serves as the main general pediatrics training site for residents and medical students. Dr. Solomon has established a model of on-site family-centered services in the Harriet Lane Clinic which includes a Family Resource Desk to link families with community-based resources, mental health consultation for children and adolescents, and a screening and referral program for mothers experiencing intimate partner violence or postpartum depression. Dr. Solomon’s research and advocacy interests include injury and youth violence prevention, the delivery of children’s mental health services in primary care settings, and medical education. He is co-investigator on the Dyson Initiative National Evaluation. Dr. Solomon is also an active teacher in the pediatric residency program and medical school and a Core Faculty member in the Colleges Advisory Program where he serves as a clinical skills instructor, faculty co-leader of Taussig College, and longitudinal faculty advisor to 20 medical students. Deborah Perry, PhD, is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her primary appointment is at Georgetown University, where she is Research Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. In her work, Dr. Perry focuses on helping high-risk populations of families with young children. She is involved in translating evidence-based interventions and helping policymakers to design, implement, and evaluate systems of services. Dr. Perry has evaluated models of early childhood mental health consultation services in Maryland child care settings. Currently, she is testing the effects of a preventative, cognitive-behavioral intervention on post-partum depression for a group of pregnant Latina women living in DC. In 2007, Dr. Perry published an edited volume, Social and Emotional Health: Building Bridges Between Services and System. Pamela K. Donohue, ScD, PA-C, is an assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and holds a joint appointment in the School of Public Health’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. She is the director of Clinical Research for the Division of Neonatology and the NICU Safety and Performance Improvement Initiative. Her areas of research interest include the outcome of families of very low birthweight infants, health delivery systems for preterm and critically ill infants both in the hospital and after discharge home, and physician-parent communication around critical decision-making for fetuses and newborns. She is a member of the Baltimore City Fetal Infant Mortality Review Committee, and the MCHB Research Review Committee. She writes policy for the American Academy of Physician Assistants as a member of the Professional Practice Council. Dawn Misra, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Misra began her academic career as an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on social and biomedical factors that may influence perinatal outcomes and that may explain the increased risks of infants born to poor and minority women. This includes examining the intersection between women's health prior to pregnancy and outcomes of pregnancy. Dr. Misra has collaborated with the WCHPC on a number of projects, most recently proposing a contemporary perinatal health framework emphasizing preconceptional and interconceptional health as key factors in achieving optimal perinatal outcomes for the mother and infant. At present, Dr. Misra is conducting research on the etiology of preterm birth among African-American women, seeking to test a life course multiple determinants model of preterm delivery. She is also continuing to work with the WCHPC faculty on a project with the EPA Office of Children's Health, which has resulted in a manuscript coauthored with Holly Grason ("Reducing environmental toxicants before birth: Moving from risk perception to risk reduction.") nationwide evaluation of Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs. Continued collaboration with the center and EPA are expected in this area. Marjory Ruderman, MHS, is an associate in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Ms. Ruderman has worked with Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center for over a decade, with a primary focus on public health system functions and capacity. Currently, she is leading the development of the WCHPC's Maternal and Child Health Leadership Skills Development Series (MCHLDS) and contributing to a study examining the influence of state newborn screening programs on survival of children with sickle cell disease. Previously, Ms. Ruderman served as a project director for the WCHPC's Capacity Assessment for State Title V (CAST-5) and Early Childhood System Building Tool, and was a staff member of the national Evaluation of Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs. Ms. Ruderman is also an independent consultant to organizations working to improve public health services for women, children, and families. She received her master's degree in Maternal and Child Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Catherine Hess, MSW, has a solid track record of state and national policy and program leadership spanning nearly three decades. She initiated and led a family health policy office for Massachusetts' state health department. Among other results, this office’s work helped translate data and research into new, nationally recognized programs to reduce infant mortality. Under her 14-year leadership as its first executive director, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) developed widely disseminated and extensively utilized policy analyses and tools. The AMCHP team also created multiple methods to help states apply knowledge to programs. At NASHP, Catherine now oversees work on children's health coverage, serving as the Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Maximizing Enrollment for Kids national program, as well as work related to health centers, health systems performance and other state health policy issues. Karen VanLandeghem, MPH, has nearly twenty years experience in health and human service policy and program development and government relations with expertise in public health systems, maternal and child health, public health insurance, early childhood and adolescent health, and coalition building. She spent eleven years in Washington, D.C. where she worked for national children’s health and education organizations, including as the assistant executive director of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. Currently, she operates a consulting business based in the Chicago metropolitan area that works with national, federal, and state entities to improve and advance policies, programs and services that support women, children, youth and their families, particularly those who are low-income. Clients have included the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative™ (CHIRI™); The National Governors Association; The American Academy of Pediatrics; Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families; The National Academy for State Health Policy; the National Institute for Healthcare Management Foundation; and the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership. Ms. VanLandeghem is on the faculties of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, School of Public Health. Ms. VanLandeghem is the author of numerous reports and publications on child and family health policies and best practices. In 2000, she was the recipient of the American Public Health Association’s Young Professional Award for outstanding achievement and leadership in maternal and child health. She received her Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan. Carol S. Weisman, PhD, is professor of Health Evaluation Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA, with a joint appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Administration. She is a sociologist and health services researcher with a principal interest in organizational and quality of care issues in women’s health. Her research focuses on access and quality in women’s primary and preventive care, as well as on policy related to women’s health. Previously, she was professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she was the founding director of the Interdepartmental Concentration in Reproductive and Women’s Health, and professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Currently, she is on the adjunct staff of RAND and serves as Co-Director of the Magee-RAND Women’s Health Initiative in Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Weisman is editor of the journal Women’s Health Issues, the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, and she serves on the Board of Governors of the Jacobs Institute. Dr. Weisman is the author of over 100 publications, including Women’s Health Care: Activist Traditions and Institutional Change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).
Faculty and Staff Contact Information Winnie Tsang is the Research Program Coordinator for the WCHPC, providing support for the Center's ongoing projects. She received a bachelor's degree in May 2008 from Johns Hopkins University, where she majored in Biomedical Engineering and English. Her interests include public policy and human rights, with particular emphasis on the rule of law pertaining to women's issues. Lauren Zerbe is the communications specialist for the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute (UHI) and the Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center (WCHPC). One of her primary roles involves serving as technical coordinator for the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Skills Development Series (MCHLDS). As the communications specialist, Lauren works with faculty and staff to develop effective communication strategies. She is also responsible for all media development including the creation and publication of materials disseminated by the UHI and the WCHPC. As the technical coordinator of the MCHLDS, she works with the project director to coordinate logistics and manage the production and technical implementation of the web-based training resources. She is an MBA student at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and holds a bachelors’ degree in visual communication from Towson University. Faculty and Staff Contact Information |
