HDRS Program Faculty

Medical Sciences:

Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Family Medicine, and Director of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine T32 Research Fellowship and the Primary Care Search Fellowship T32. He studies complementary and integrative medical treatments using experimental designs with a focus on patient centered outcomes.

Christie Bartels, MD, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology within the Department of Medicine. She seeks to reduce disparities and improve the cardiovascular health and longevity of patients with inflammatory diseases.

Elizabeth Cox, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Associate Director of the Primary Care Research Fellowship T32 in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. she is a national leader in the conduct of patient-centered outcomes research.

Jane Mahoney, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of Dissemination and Implementation Resources at the Institute for Clinical & Translational Research. Her work centers on effective ways to get evidence-based programs into practice.

Meghan Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics. Her research is focused on understanding of the relationship between media and adolescent health.

Gloria E Sarto, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and founding director of the Health Disparities Research Scholars Program. She remains active in research and teaching related to women’s health and health disparities.

Population Health Sciences:

Marguerite Burns, PhD, Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences. Her interests are in health policy and health economics, particularly in the consequences of public health insurance design on individual health and health care use, interactions with other public welfare programs, labor market outcomes, and public resource use.

Maureen Durkin, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Population Health Sciences, and Director of the Health Disparities Research Scholars Program. She is an epidemiologist whose research focuses on health disparities, child development, and children with special health care needs.

Tiffany Green, PhD, Associate Professor, Departments of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics & Gynecology. Dr. Green is a health economist with a focus on topics related to health equity, racial disparities, prenatal care, and infant and child health outcomes.

John Mullahy, PhD, Professor of Health Economics, Department of Population Health Sciences. He is a health economist with research interests in the applications of econometric methods to health economics and health policy analysis.

Maureen Smith, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Population Health Sciences and Family Medicine and Director of the Health Innovation Program and Community-Academic Partnerships, for the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Her research focuses on quality of care and access to care.

Behavioral Sciences:

Janean Dilworth-Bart, PhD, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. Her scholarship revolves around how early developmental contexts help or hinder children’s development into competent, productive members of society

Larissa Duncan, PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty Director, Center for Child and Family Well-Being, School of Human Ecology. She studies the biological and psychological pathways through which contemplative practices may support healthy child and family development.

Alberta Gloria, PhD, Professor, Counseling Psychology. Her scholarship emphases students’ sense of congruent belonging and processes of finding meaningful connections to support their educational wellness.

Robert Nix, PhD, the Audrey Rothermel-Bascom Professor of Human Development and Family Studies. His research focuses on the development and rigorous evaluation of prevention programs to promote adaptive social-emotional functioning and prevent the development of programs among children living in poverty.

Carol Ryff, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology and Director, UW Institute on Aging. She is PI of the Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) national study; her expertise is in the biopsychosocial pathways to health.

Earlise Ward, PhD, Director of Morgridge Center of Public Service, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, School of Nursing. Her research is focused on mental health interventions for African Americans.

Claire Wendland, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Ob-Gyn, A medical anthropologist, her work focuses on the globalization of biomedicine. Related work includes the anthropology of reproduction, sexuality and the body.

Sociology and Social Work:

Lawrence Berger, PhD, Professor, School of Social Work, and Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and the Poverty Fellows Program. His expertise is in family and child well-being.

Marcy Carlson, PhD, Professor, Department of Sociology, Director, Center for Demography and Ecology. Her areas of expertise are social stratification, family, demography and ecology.

Katherine Curtis, PhD, Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology and Director of the UW-Madison Applied Population Laboratory. Her work centers on spacial, environmental, rural, and applied demography.

Marah Curtis PhD, Associate Professor, School of Social Work. Her research focuses on the health, housing stability and living arrangements of economically vulnerable families and individuals.

Jen Dykema, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the UW Survey Center. She conducts research on questionnaire design, interviewer-respondent interaction, and methods to increase response rates.

Michal Engleman, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on the dynamics of population aging and health across the life course, with particular emphasis on early and mid-life factors that influence health disparities at older ages.

Eric Grodsky, PhD, Professor, Departments of Sociology and Educational Policy Studies and studies the sociology of education and social stratification.

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Human Development & Family Studies, School of Human Ecology. A sociologist, her research interests include tax-based government assistance for low-income families.

Michael Light, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies. Dr. Light’s work focuses on the legal and criminological consequences of international migration, the relationship between racial/ethnic stratification and crime, and the health consequences of major social and demographic shifts.

Stephanie Robert, PhD, Professor and Director, School of Social Work. Her research is focused on neighborhood context and health over the life course.

Health and Economic Policy:

Christine Durrance, PhD, Associate Professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs. Her work includes a focus on maternal, infant, and reproductive health; risky behavior (e.g., substance use and violence); and the legal and policy environment.

Jason Fletcher, PhD, Professor of Public Affairs and Sociology and Director of the CDHA and UW Census Research Data Center. A specialist in health economics, economics of education, and health policy, he researches social network effects on adolescent education and health outcomes, combining genetics and social science research, and estimating long-term consequences of childhood mental illness and child and adolescent mental health policy.

Yang Wang, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Affairs. Her primary research interests are in applied microeconomics, health economics, and applied econometrics.

African American Studies/Anthropology/Gender and Women’s Studies:

Jenny Higgins, PhD, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her expertise is in reproductive epidemiology.

Mosi Ifatunji, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Afro-American Studies. Dr. Ifatunji’s primary research and teaching interests are in racial and ethnic theory and the methods used to study inequality and stratification.

Basic Sciences:

Ian Bird, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Integrated Graduate Training, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. An expert in the molecular endocrinology of reproduction, he is Director, Endocrinology-Reproductive Physiology, and PI of the associated Predoctoral T32.