Social epidemiologist Lisa Berkman is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She was appointed director of the HCPDS by Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman in October 2007. Dr. Berkman was chair of the School’s Department of Society, Human Development and Health from 1995–2008. Recognized for her groundbreaking work in the field of social epidemiology,…
Jason Beckfield is the associate director of HCPDS, and the Robert G. Stone, Jr. Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. He served as chair of the Sociology Department from 2017 to 2020. Conceptually, Beckfield is interested in how social and political institutions shape structures of inequality, both within and between national societies. He deploys comparative research methods to capitalize on and investigate the…
Laura is responsible for overseeing operations, administration, finance, communications, training programs and seminars/events. Laura also works closely with the Center director and stakeholders in setting programmatic goals, building strategic partnerships both domestically and internationally, and disseminating the work and accomplishments of the Center. She has over 25 years experience in project management, marketing, and development at both Harvard and other academic institutions.
S. Bryn Austin is professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; a member of the research faculty in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital; and director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders: A Public Health Incubator. She is also the founder of the Sexual Orientation,…
Mauricio Avendano is associate professor at the University of Lausanne and co-director of the Health Policy Lab at the department of epidemiology and health systems at Unisanté. He is also visiting professor of public policy and global health at King’s College London, and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Avendano’s research leverages quasi-experimental methods and data from…
Rob is the associate director of finance for the Center, responsible for budgeting and forecasting, endowment and grant management, pre- and post-award financial stewardship, as well as some human resource functions. Rob has over 20 years of operations, financial and administrative management experience with organizations in the non-profit, government, and corporate sectors. Rob holds a master’s degree in management from Lesley University, and a BS in accounting from the University…
Till Bärnighausen is the Alexander von Humboldt University Professor, and director of the Heidelberg Institute of Public Health at the University of Heidelberg; and a senior faculty member at the Africa Health Research Institute (ARHI) in South Africa. Bärnighausen is a population health researcher who focuses on three areas of research: (i) establishing the causal impacts of large-scale global health interventions—such as HIV treatment, HIV prevention, and childhood vaccination—on health,…
Sebastian Bauhoff is assistant professor of global health and economics in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Bauhoff’s research focuses on innovations in health care financing and service delivery that can increase access, efficiency, and quality of care in low- and middle-income countries. He also examines ways to improve the design and implementation of health care policies and programs. His recent…
Sara Bleich is professor of public health policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her research provides evidence to support policy alternatives for obesity prevention and control, particularly among populations at higher risk, and she aims to fill critical gaps in the scientific literature about the…
Jason Block is a general internal medicine physician, and associate professor in population health medicine at Harvard Medical School. His primary research interests are neighborhood-level determinants of weight gain and obesity, the evaluation of governmental and institutional policies and other novel interventions to improve diet, and leveraging electronic health record data for observational research and public health surveillance. He has served as a Senior Advisor in the Assistant Secretary for…