Faculty Profiles by Region of Research

Rosa Angulo-Barroso, PhD
is Professor of Kinesiology, and a Research Scientist at the Center for Human Growth and Development. She is a faculty member in the Center for Motor Behavior and Pediatric Disabilities, and MHIRT training faculty for projects in China and Chile. She is a behavioral developmentalist with a neuroscience and biomechanics background working in the field of movement science. She specializes in infant and children populations, both with and without developmental problems. Her research focuses on the effects of physical rehabilitation interventions on gait, mobility, physical activity levels, and quality of life in pediatric populations. She also examines the role of iron deficiency on physical activity and motor skill performance and how these deficiencies relate to other developmental domains such as cognitive and emotional.

Howard Hu, MD, MPH, ScD
is Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology, and Medicine. He is founder and director of the Metals Epidemiology Research Group (MERG) http://sitemaker.umich.edu/merg/merg_home, which, with support from NIH, the EPA, and other granting agencies, has been conducting multi-disciplinary human population studies around the world on the health effects of general environmental and occupational exposures to environmental toxicants with an emphasis on metals such as lead, manganese, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. Among MERG's research projects led by PI Dr. Hu is a 15 year old NIEHS-funded research program on exposures and reproductive toxicity in Mexico City in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (the early life exposures to environmental toxicants in Mexico study--ELEMENT), and an NIH Fogarty funded FIRCA Study of Lead Exposure & Outcomes Amongst Children in Chennai, India. The latter is an on-going collaborative multi-institutional environmental health research and training project with the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (SRMC) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The project aims to describe lead exposure and exposure-dose relationships of lead dose to neurobehavioral outcomes (and the modifying effect of genetic polymorphisms on those same relationships) in primary school children in Chennai (formerly Madras), India.

Maria Carmen Lemos, PhD
is Associate Professor of Natural Resources, with special focus on the human dimensions of climate change, environmental policy, environmental justice. Her research interests include the use of techno-scientific knowledge in environmental policymaking (especially water mater management) in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and United States; the human dimensions of global change and the impact of seasonal climate forecasting in policymaking (agriculture, drought-relief, water management); the role of technocrats and public participation in environmental policymaking; and the socioenvironmental vulnerability of residents in the Mexico/U.S border region.

Jorge Delva, PhD
is Associate Professor of Social Work with research interests in the use of multi-level statistical techniques to study the effect, and trends, of individual risk and protective factors on substance use and childhood obesity, while taking into account neighborhood and their contextual level factors with a particular focus on racial and ethnic differences and Latin American populations.

Ana Diez Roux, MD, PhD
is Professor of Epidemiology with research interests in the social and environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease, with a special focus on neighborhoods and health. Some of her ongoing research projects include neighborhood context and cardiovascular disease, long term exposure to airborne particulates and subclinical atherosclerosis, the social patterning of stress, inflammation and hemostasis, and the social patterning of cardiovascular disease in Latin America. Dr. Diez Roux also has a long-standing interest in methodological issues related to the integration of group-level and individual-level factors in health research, including the application of multilevel analysis to study area and neighborhood health effects.

p> Christine Erdmann, PhD, MPH
is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology with research interests in molecular mechanisms underlying the relationship between breast cancer risk and environmental factors, preclinical disease detection, and spatial analysis methods. Her present research in Brazil explores the areas of cancer and environmental epidemiology. She is co-principal investigator on a case-control study of the relationship between environmental factors and breast cancer risk in Brazil, funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program.

Betsy Foxman, PhD
is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology (MAC-EPID) and of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Infectious Disease supported by NIAID. Her research interests focus on transmission, from sexual behavior to the transmission of gene coding for antibiotic resistance between bacteria. Ongoing projects include using a molecular epidemiologic strategy to discover new bacteria genes associated with transmission, virulence, and resistance. Dr. Foxman has ongoing collaborative projects in Curitiba, Brazil.

A. Robert Frisancho, PhD
is the Arthur A. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology and Research Professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development and Honorary Professor of Anthropology of the National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco, Perú. He is a biological anthropologist with research interests in: the determination of the developmental components of cardio-respiratory adaption to high altitude environment particularly in South America; determining the role of undernutrition on the development of obesity in the developing nations; the biological and environmental components of blood pressure variability among blacks; and the development of anthropometric references for the evaluation of growth and nutritional status of children and adults. He is the author of 5 books concerned with Human Adapatation to past and present environments and World Nutritional Antrhopometric Standards.

Sheila Gahagan, MD
is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the Medical School, Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Human Growth and Development, and MHIRT training faculty for projects in Chile. She is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and epidemiologist whose research is aimed at understanding health disparities in child growth and development. Dr. Gahagan also has considerable expertise in cultural factors and their role in health behavior, and studies early psychosocial and socioeconomic risks for the development of obesity, the impact of iron deficiency anemia on brain development and behavior, the importance of environmental risk factors and early infant regulations problems in determining later behavioral health problems, the role of stress hormones in children born to mothers with depression, and the role of breast feeding, home visiting and day care in modifying and moderating risk for obesity and other common health problems. Dr. Gahagan has current research collaborations in France, Italy, Viet Nam, as well as in Chile.

Lorraine Gutierrez, PhD
is Professor of Social Work and Psychology, and a faculty associate in American Culture. Her teaching and research focus on multicultural and community organization practice. Current projects include identifying methods for multicultural community based research and practice, defining multicultural education for social work practice, and identifying effective methods for learning about social justice.

Siobán Harlow, PhD
is Professor of Epidemiology, a Research Affiliate at the Population Studies Center, and of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s program on Gender and Global Health. She is also a member of the Scientifical and Technical Advisory Group for the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, the World Health Organization. Dr. Harlow headed the UM Fogarty International Center Training Grant for Research Training in Reproductive and Perinatal Health in collaboration with El Colegio de Sonora in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico and with the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is Principal Investigator of a collaborative study examining the impact of economic development and socio-environmental vulnerability on infant and adult mortality in Sonora Mexico. Her research focuses on reproductive health in the context of export-led production and on gynecological, perinatal and obstetric morbidity in low and middle income countries. For more information on UM's Fogarty International Training Program with profiles of some of the Fogarty Fellows go to: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/training/funds/fogarty.html and for information on the Reproductive Health of Global Supply Chain Workers see: http://rhgw.psc.isr.umich.edu/index.html

Amid I. Ismail, MPH, MBA, DrPh
is Professor in the Department of Cariology, Restorative Sciences and Endodontics and the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. He is also Director of the Program in Dental Public Health, Detroit Center for Research on Oral Health Disparities and the Detroit Oral Cancer Prevention Project. Dr. Ismail’s current research is on determinants of disparities of dental caries in African-American children; he is conducting a clinical trial testing the impact of motivational interviewing on oral hygiene behaviors as well as on dental caries incidence measured using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). He is also conducting a community-based multi-media intervention to reduce the mortality from oral cancer in Detroit. Dr. Ismail will coordinate training of pre- and post-graduate dental students in international health in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Washington, DC, with potential assignments in South America; and with other countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Jody Lori, MS, CNM
is a Lecturer IV in the School of Nursing. Her research interests include racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, discrimination and maternal-child health. She recently completed a three-year project in post-war Liberia to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by increasing access to basic life saving measures within the home and community. She also does work in Latin America and Africa building midwifery capacity to improve birth outcomes. The focus of her research is on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

Lisa Kane Low, PhD, CNM, FACNM
is an Assistant Professor in Women's Studies and at the School of Nursing. She is also in practice as a nurse midwife in the Department of OB/GYN. Her research interests include care practices during the process of birth including the role of social support. Her areas of focus have included qualitative review of the experience of childbirth for women and adolescents, the role of social support as provided by Doulas, care practices for women with a history of trauma or PTSD and management of the second stage of labor to prevent pelvic floor trauma. She is Principal Investigator of a study focused on the implementation of SafeMotherhood policy in northern rural Honduras.

David Lam, PhD
is Professor of Economics and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center. Dr. Lam specializes in the application of microeconomic theory to demographic behavior and the interaction of population dynamics and economic variables. His research focuses on the interaction of economics and demography in developing countries, including analysis of the economics of population growth, fertility, marriage, and aging. He has worked extensively in Brazil, where his research analyzes links between education, labor markets, and income inequality. He is currently Principal Investigator of the Cape Area Panel Study, a longitudinal survey of young people in Cape Town supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Betsy Lozoff, MD
is Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the Medical School and Research Professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development. She is a behavioral/developmental pediatrician whose research focuses on the effects of iron deficiency anemia, the most common single nutrient disorder in the world, on infant behavior and development. She heads a multiuniversity cross-species program project grant on brain and behavior in early iron deficiency. Lozoff also directs a large project on iron deficiency in Chile, continues a follow-up study in Costa Rica of young adults who had iron deficiency in infancy, and was part of another large study of micronutrient supplementation in India.

Jerome O. Nriagu, PhD
is Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Research Professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development. His research focuses on the sources, fate, and effects of toxic metals in the environment; environmental risk factors for asthma; and environmental justice. His research interests encompass environmental health and environmental epidemiology and include exposure assessment, risk evaluation, and environmental impact assessment. He has conducted research and training activities in a number of countries overseas including South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil and Jamaica. Dr. Nriagu also coordinates student research placements for the FIC MHIRT program in Jamaica.

Marie O'Neill, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Science. Her research interests include health effects of air pollution and temperature extremes (mortality, asthma, and cardiovascular endpoints); environmental exposure assessment; and socio-economic influences on health. Her current international research collaborations include a study of air pollution, socio-economic status and mortality in Latin American cities (including Mexico City, Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil) and a study of air pollution and asthma hospital admissions in Seoul, Korea. She has worked for the Pan American Health Organization and in Mexico at the National Institute of Public Health and the National Center for Environmental Health as a Fulbright Scholar.

Robert Ortega, PhD
is Associate Professor of Social Work with research interests in relationship development, group work practice, treatment interventions and service utilization particularly in the areas of mental health and child welfare, with a special focus on multiculturalism. His current research focuses on Latinos, child welfare and mental health help-seeking behaviors, and examines the underutilization of mental health and child welfare services by the rapidly growing Latino population. Dr. Ortega was Principle Investigator of the MexUSCan project, which offered a multi-methodological approach designed to examine the well being of youth within the context of economic globalization and trans-nationalism. He is cofounder of the Latino Community Outreach Project which provides research, student training and evaluations of programs serving Latino communities throughout Michigan.

Julia Paley, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Anthropology with research interests in the multiple meanings and practices of democracy in various geographic contexts. Through fieldwork in Chile, she has explored the ways in which social organizations--particularly a grassroots health group--in a Santiago poblacion (shantytown) created strategies to improve living conditions and analyzed political phenomena in the post-dictatorship period. In Ecuador, funded by the Fulbright Commission, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, she is investigating democracy promotion activities by international aid agencies in relation to citizen participation processes by alternative local governments and the indigenous movement. One of the key issues in this fieldsite is the decentralization of health care. Dr. Paley’s book, Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship Chile (University of California Press, 2001) won the 2001 Sharon Stephens Award of the American Ethnological Society for the best first book by a junior scholar.

Mercedes Pascual, PhD
is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Affiliated Faculty at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. She is a theoretical ecologist interested in population and community dynamics, with research interests in: the spatio-temporal dynamics of ecological systems such as predator-prey, host-parasite, and disturbance-recovery, extrapolating her findings to potential similarities with the dynamics of infectious diseases in networks; the documented link between climate variability and cycles of cholera outbreaks; and the relationship between structure and dynamics in large networks of ecological interactions.

Ruth Simmons, PhD
is Professor Emeritus of Health Behavior and Health Education with research interests in the organization of public sector family planning and related reproductive health services, placing special emphasis on the interface between users and programs and quality of care. Of particular interest to her work is the scaling up of innovative pilot, experimental and demonstration projects to regional and national policy and programmatic levels. With funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Simmons current work is focused on convening a global network of public health professionals who seek to advance the science and practice of scaling up health innovations, called ExpandNet (www.expandnet.net). She has written and co-edited a book on scaling up, published by the World Health Organization, and co-written two guides to support scaling up health services, all three of which are available on the ExpandNet website.

Alexandra Stern, PhD
is the Zina Pitcher Collegiate Professor in the History of Medicine, Associate Director of the Center for the History of Medicine, and holds appointments in Obstetrics and Gynecology, American culture, and History. Her research focuses on the history of medicine, public health, and science in the Americas, including the United States, Mexico, Panama, and Argentina. Her book, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America (University of California Press, 2005) was awarded the 2006 Arthur Viseltear Prize by the American Public Health Association. In addition to funded projects on the history and ethics of genetics and reproductive technologies, in 2008 she was awarded, with Dr. Howard Markel, a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award in Health Policy Research to study the experiences of 50 U.S. cities during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

p> Katherine Terrell, PhD
is Professor of Public Policy Analysis at the Ford School and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the School of Business. Her work examines the impact of globalization and government programs and policies on the labor market. Her research and teaching focus on Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America where the transition to the global market economy has been dramatic in the last decade.

Antonia Villarruel, RN, PhD
is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the School of Nursing. Her research focus is health promotion, primarily among Latino youth. Her current work involves the development and testing of HIV sexual risk reduction interventions with Latino and Mexican youth.

Mark L. Wilson, ScM, ScD
is Professor of Epidemiology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research and teaching focus on the social and environmental determinants of infectious disease risk and the impacts of globalization on health. He is an ecologist and epidemiologist with broad research interests in infectious diseases, including the analysis of transmission dynamics, the evolution of vector-host-parasite systems, and the determinants of human risk. Most projects address environmental and social variation, in time and space, as they impact on vector and reservoir populations and pathogen transmission dynamics. Recent efforts have been directed at malaria and schistosomiasis in Africa, leishmaniasis in the Middle East, and dengue fever in South America. Dr. Wilson currently is involved in training and research projects in Kenya, Malawi, China, Egypt, Israel, and Peru.

Marcia C. Inhorn, PhD, MPH
is Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, Anthropology and Women's Studies and is former director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. A medical anthropologist specializing in Middle Eastern gender and health issues, she has conducted research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America over the past 20 years.

Jody Lori, MS, CNM
is a Lecturer IV in the School of Nursing. Her research interests include racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, discrimination and maternal-child health. She recently completed a three-year project in post-war Liberia to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by increasing access to basic life saving measures within the home and community. She also does work in Latin America and Africa building midwifery capacity to improve birth outcomes. The focus of her research is on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sofia Merajver, MD, PhD
is Professor of Internal Medicine, Scientific Director of Breast Oncology Program, and Director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk and Evaluation Clinic. She is an expert in breast cancer genetics with research interests in the molecular genetics of breast cancer, gene function, cancer risk assessment, international breast cancer research, and prevention. Her laboratory studies aggressive forms of breast cancer, with inflammatory breast cancer being the primary model. She also performs clinical and translational research in breast cancer. She is especially well known as an educator and dedicated mentor of postdoctoral and predoctoral students and of junior faculty at the UM Medical School and SPH and at many institutions worldwide.

Amr Soliman, MD, PHD
is Professor of Epidemiology with research focused on international cancer epidemiology, investigating colorectal and other cancers in different ethnic and racial groups through national and international comparative studies and the use of molecular and genetic methods. He is also exploring the effect of migration to the United States on cancer risk modification. These studies are in collaboration with clinicians and scientists in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Professor Soliman is the Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Education in Special Populations Program of the Michigan School of Public Health http://www.sph.umich.edu/ceesp

Mark L. Wilson, ScM, ScD
is Professor of Epidemiology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research and teaching focus on the social and environmental determinants of infectious disease risk and the impacts of globalization on health. He is an ecologist and epidemiologist with broad research interests in infectious diseases, including the analysis of transmission dynamics, the evolution of vector-host-parasite systems, and the determinants of human risk. Most projects address environmental and social variation, in time and space, as they impact on vector and reservoir populations and pathogen transmission dynamics. Recent efforts have been directed at malaria and schistosomiasis in Africa, leishmaniasis in the Middle East, and dengue fever in South America. Dr. Wilson currently is involved in training and research projects in Kenya, Malawi, China, Egypt, Israel, and Peru.

Zhenhua Yang, MD, PhD
is Associate Professor of Epidemiology, with research collaborations with the clinical microbiology laboratory of Innonu University, Malatya, Turkey, and the Hong Kong Health department to study the genetic mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance in different geographic regions and to develop molecular methods for rapid detection of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis clinical isolates.

Arnold S. Monto, MD
is Professor of Epidemiology and founding Director of the Bioterrorism Preparedness Initiative. The major focus of his work has been the epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of acute infections, including work on prevention and treatment. Influenza has been a major research interest, with special reference to the evaluation of vaccines in various populations and the assessment of the value of antivirals such as amantadine, rimantadine and the neuraminidase inhibitors. He is currently involved in assessing the efficacy of live and inactivated vaccines in prophylaxis and the neuraminidase inhibitors in therapy of influenza, and working with US and international organizations on pandemic preparedness.

Barbara Anderson, PhD
is Professor of Sociology, Faculty Associate at the Center for Russian and East European Studies, and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center. Dr. Anderson studies the relationship between social change and demographic change. Her research focuses on South Africa, the former Soviet Union and China.

Rita Benn, PhD
is Research Investigator in Family Medicine, Assistant Research Scientist with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and Director of Education for the University of Michigan’s Integrative Medicine Program, where she has a grant to develop and expand curriculum related to integrative health into medical education and allied health fields. Her research examines the effects of mind-body practices on emotional development. Dr. Benn is on a board for a newly founded international non-profit that provides humanitarian services to children and families in China who are suffering from the effects of HIV and AIDS.

Michael Fetters, MD, MPH, MA
serves as Director of the Japanese Family Health Program, Department of Family Medicine. His international research focus is on the promotion and growth of the US model of medical education, especially with regards to family medicine in Japan. This has involved a multifaceted program of research, clinical care, and education. Previous research includes a series of studies conducted in the Family Medicine Japanese Family Health Program (JFHP) that is currently located at Dominos Farms. The focus has been on investigating the influence of Japanese culture on medical decision making. The JFHP also serves as an educational laboratory for medical students, residents, community physicians, and faculty who are interested in developing culturally and linguistically competent skills in Japanese for provision of family medicine. The program actively supports educational exchange of students, residents and faculty between UM and multiple institutions in Japan.

Berit Ingersoll-Dayton, PhD
is Professor of Social Work with interests in social support, interpersonal practice, mental health, and clinical research with respect to families in later life. Within the area of social support, she has focused on positive and negative aspects of support, gender differences, issues of equity and reciprocity, and cross-cultural differences in marital and intergenerational relationships. In relation to clinical research, she has assessed various group interventions with the elderly, intergenerational family therapy approaches, and methods of assisting employed caregivers of the elderly.

Lydia Li, PhD
is Associate Professor of Social Work with an interest in gerontology. Her research focuses on issues related to elder care, including family caregiving, home and community-based long-term care, aging in place and quality of life. Dr. Li’s research on Chinese elders examines family care and old-age support in China. She is interested in cross-cultural comparisons of the association between social relationships and well-being.

Jersey Liang, PhD
is a Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health and Research Professor at the Institute of Gerontology. His work focuses on health and aging from a cross cultural comparative perspective. His current research centers around three major themes: (1) the conceptualization and measurement of quality of life at the individual level and the estimation of health expectancy at the population level, (2) dynamics of health and health care in old age, and (3) geriatric care management and policy. Since the mid-1980s, he has been actively engaged in comparative studies of health, health care, and aging in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and China.

Marie O'Neill, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Science. Her research interests include health effects of air pollution and temperature extremes (mortality, asthma, and cardiovascular endpoints); environmental exposure assessment; and socio-economic influences on health. Her current international research collaborations include a study of air pollution, socio-economic status and mortality in Latin American cities (including Mexico City, Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil) and a study of air pollution and asthma hospital admissions in Seoul, Korea. She has worked for the Pan American Health Organization and in Mexico at the National Institute of Public Health and the National Center for Environmental Health as a Fulbright Scholar.

Karl Rew, MD
is Instructor of Family Medicine with a joint appointment in Urology. In the Japanese Family Health Program at Domino’s Farms, Dr. Rew integrates his bilingual clinical practice with training students and physicians. Trainees gain cultural and linguistic competency along with family medicine skills. The Japanese Family Health Program actively supports educational exchange of students, residents and faculty between U-M and multiple institutions in Japan, and assists the Japanese physicians and students who are building family medicine as a new specialty in Japan. Dr. Rew provides health care for all age groups. He has particular clinical interests in urgent care medicine and men’s health.

Ruth Simmons, PhD
is Professor Emeritus of Health Behavior and Health Education with research interests in the organization of public sector family planning and related reproductive health services, placing special emphasis on the interface between users and programs and quality of care. Of particular interest to her work is the scaling up of innovative pilot, experimental and demonstration projects to regional and national policy and programmatic levels. With funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Simmons current work is focused on convening a global network of public health professionals who seek to advance the science and practice of scaling up health innovations, called ExpandNet (www.expandnet.net). She has written and co-edited a book on scaling up, published by the World Health Organization, and co-written two guides to support scaling up health services, all three of which are available on the ExpandNet website.

Jose Tapia, MBBCh, MPH, PhD
is Assistant Research Scientist with the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy (IRLEE). He earned his medical degree in Spain, and has performed as editor and Chief-Editor of Periodicals of the Washington DC Regional Office of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). He has taught classes and workshops in scientific publishing, international health, and economic development. His work on Sweden and Japan has been recently published in the "Journal of Health Economics" and "Demography". His research focuses on the relations between economic growth, macroeconomic fluctuations and health, and the pathways leading from working and living conditions to changes in mortality.

Twila Tardif, PhD
is Professor of Psychology, Faculty Associate at the Center for Chinese Studies, and Research Professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development. Her primary research interests are in exploring the relationships between language, culture, and cognition in particular, early language learning in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. She has reported that Mandarin-speaking children use more verbs than nouns in their early vocabularies, and is developing a theory about how parents guide children's attention in focusing on and labeling different aspects of causative action sequences to explain both universal and language-specific features of vocabulary learning. In addition, she works together with pediatricians, kinesiologists, clinical psychologists, and a mechanical engineer on an NSF-funded project on "Emotion Regulation as a Complex System" to examine multiple levels (behavioral, physiological) of emotion regulation in Chinese, Japanese, and US preschoolers and uses dynamic systems approaches to model emotion regulation in preschoolers. She has recently returned from a 2-month ethnographic experience in Japan and is using qualitative research methods to help understand some of the behavioral and questionnaire results from these studies.

Arland Thornton, PhD
is Professor of Sociology, Research Professor at the Survey Research Center, and Director and Research Professor of the Population Studies Center. Dr. Thornton specializes in the study of marriage, family, and life course structures and processes. His work currently focuses on intergenerational relations, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, reproductive behavior, living arrangements, and gender roles in Nepal, Taiwan, and the United States. His research includes historical and comparative perspectives, studies of the influence of developmental models and methods on family scholarship, data about family change, and the beliefs and behaviors of individual and community actors.

James O. Woolliscroft, MD
is Dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, the Lyle C. Roll Professor of Medicine and Professor of Medical Education. An internationally recognized medical educator, Dr. Woolliscroft’s research interests include using technology to facilitate medical education and educational outcomes assessment.

Mieko Yoshihama, PhD
is Associate Professor of Social Work with research interests in violence against women of color, which is reflected in her advocacy work with Asian Pacific American battered women in Los Angeles and in Japan over the past decade. Her investigations focus on the multidimensional impact of culture and oppressed status on women's experiences of domestic violence in communities of color, especially among immigrants. She has conducted a study of women of Japanese descent in Los Angeles, focus groups with survivors of domestic violence in Japan, and a study in Detroit aimed at improving methods of data collection and analytical approaches to the study of domestic violence. In collaboration with the World Health Organization, she is also coordinating a large-scale epidemiological study of domestic violence and women's health in Japan. Yoshihama is a founding member of the Domestic Violence Action and Research Group, whose first nationwide survey of domestic violence in Japan provided an impetus for emerging battered women's movements in Japan.

John Knodel, PhD
is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Research Professor Emeritus at the Population Studies Center. He has been involved in collaborative research in Southeast Asia for over three decades, with current projects in Cambodia and Thailand. His recent research in these countries focuses on three main topics. The first concerns the health and socioeconomic well-being of the general population of older persons. The second focuses on the impact of the AIDS epidemic on older age parents whose adult children have AIDS and the parent's contribution to AIDS care giving and assistance with treatment (ART) adherence. The third examines the impact of urban migration of adult children on the well-being of older age parents who remain in rural areas. His current collaborations involve the Faculty of Nursing at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and the Department of Sociology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Sharon Maccini, PhD
is Lecturer at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. As a health economist, her overarching research interest is the econometric evaluation of public health policies in developing countries. Previous research has analyzed the impact of decentralization on health outcomes and public health, and the role of environmental conditions at birth on health and socioeconomic status in adulthood. Current research focuses on the link between breast-feeding and infant health, and the population health impact of hurricanes.

Nicholas J. Rine, JD
is a Clinical Professor of Law with extensive experience as a trial lawyer in private practice. He directs the Law School's Cambodian Law and Development Program in which University of Michigan students, from the Law School, the School of Public Health and other graduate programs, work in internships in Cambodia with human rights NGOs and government ministries. Professor Rine has taught at the Royal University of Law and Economics and the Community Legal Education Center in Phnom Penh. He also works regularly as a consultant for human rights NGOs in the country. Since 2004 he has been teaching a law school course on Law and Development which connects to students' volunteer work in internships in developing nations which is also open to UM students in any of the graduate or professional schools.

Lois M. Verbrugge, PhD, MPH
is Research Professor Emerita at the Institute of Gerontology. Her research focuses on aging, disability, and rehabilitation in the United States and Southeast Asia. She is Principal Investigator on a project funded through CIRRIE (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) that links the Institute of Gerontology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (IG/UPM) with the Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan (IoG/UM). Dr. Verbrugge was Visiting Professor at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore in 2004-2006 and has ongoing research ties in Singapore and Malaysia.

William Axinn, PhD
is Research Professor at the Population Studies Center and the Survey Research Center and Professor of Sociology. Dr. Axinn studies the relationships among social change, family organization, intergenerational relationships, marriage, cohabitation and fertility in the United States and Nepal. His research also includes the development of new methods for collecting social science data.

Jennifer Barber, PhD
is Associate Research Professor at the Population Studies Center and the Research Survey Center and Associate Professor of Sociology. Dr. Barber studies intergenerational processes in families in the U.S. and Nepal. She is currently collecting mixed-method data on relationship dynamics and unintended pregnancy in the United States. Her current research in Nepal focuses on intergenerational influences on family formation attitudes and behavior.

Larry Gant, PhD
is Associate Professor of Social Work with research interests in the program evaluation of small and moderate-size human service and social action organizations in urban communities; and the creation, implementation and evaluation of community-based health promotion initiatives, substance abuse prevention, sexually transmitted diseases, integrative health and wellness care, urban community development, community nutrition initiative and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Dr. Gant conducts and supports health outreach education and research in western Africa (Ghana, Niger), South Africa, and stress reduction in traumatized populations in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Dirgha Jibi Ghimire, PhD
is Assistant Research Scientist at the Population Studies Center and Director of the Institute for Social and Environmental Research in Chitwan, Nepal. He studies the relationships among social context, social change, family organization, marriage arrangement, and first birth timing in Nepal. His research also includes the interrelationship between population and environmental dynamics. He is a Principal Investigator on the Developmental Idealism and Family and Population Dynamics in Nepal research project.

Howard Hu, MD, MPH, ScD
is Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology, and Medicine. He is founder and director of the Metals Epidemiology Research Group (MERG) http://sitemaker.umich.edu/merg/merg_home, which, with support from NIH, the EPA, and other granting agencies, has been conducting multi-disciplinary human population studies around the world on the health effects of general environmental and occupational exposures to environmental toxicants with an emphasis on metals such as lead, manganese, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. Among MERG's research projects led by PI Dr. Hu is a 15 year old NIEHS-funded research program on exposures and reproductive toxicity in Mexico City in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (the early life exposures to environmental toxicants in Mexico study--ELEMENT), and an NIH Fogarty funded FIRCA Study of Lead Exposure & Outcomes Amongst Children in Chennai, India. The latter is an on-going collaborative multi-institutional environmental health research and training project with the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (SRMC) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The project aims to describe lead exposure and exposure-dose relationships of lead dose to neurobehavioral outcomes (and the modifying effect of genetic polymorphisms on those same relationships) in primary school children in Chennai (formerly Madras), India.

Betsy Lozoff, MD
is Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the Medical School and Research Professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development. She is a behavioral/developmental pediatrician whose research focuses on the effects of iron deficiency anemia, the most common single nutrient disorder in the world, on infant behavior and development. She heads a multiuniversity cross-species program project grant on brain and behavior in early iron deficiency. Lozoff also directs a large project on iron deficiency in Chile, continues a follow-up study in Costa Rica of young adults who had iron deficiency in infancy, and was part of another large study of micronutrient supplementation in India.

Mercedes Pascual, PhD
is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Affiliated Faculty at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. She is a theoretical ecologist interested in population and community dynamics, with research interests in: the spatio-temporal dynamics of ecological systems such as predator-prey, host-parasite, and disturbance-recovery, extrapolating her findings to potential similarities with the dynamics of infectious diseases in networks; the documented link between climate variability and cycles of cholera outbreaks; and the relationship between structure and dynamics in large networks of ecological interactions.

Arland Thornton, PhD
is Professor of Sociology, Research Professor at the Survey Research Center, and Director and Research Professor of the Population Studies Center. Dr. Thornton specializes in the study of marriage, family, and life course structures and processes. His work currently focuses on intergenerational relations, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, reproductive behavior, living arrangements, and gender roles in Nepal, Taiwan, and the United States. His research includes historical and comparative perspectives, studies of the influence of developmental models and methods on family scholarship, data about family change, and the beliefs and behaviors of individual and community actors.

Violet Barkauskas, PhD, RN, FAAN
is Associate Professor of Nursing with research interests in the roles of and interventions provided by community-based nursing practitioners and the effectiveness of their practice, as well as the development of innovative graduate programs for community-based practice. She has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia and a Fulbright Teacher and Scholar in Lithuania, where she also conducted a study of nursing interventions provided in acute- and long-term care settings in collaboration with the Lithuanian Ministry of Health.

Scott Greer, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health. His research focuses on the consequences of federalism, decentralization, and European integration for health policy and the welfare state, with an emphasis on the development of health policy in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He has also done research on health politics and federalism in the United States, Canada, and Spain. He currently directs a two-year project on the consequences for health services and citizenship rights of trends towards both decentralization and the development of European Union powers in health.

Andrew Herscher, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Architecture with joint appointments in the Departments of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the History of Art. In his research, he explores the architectural and urban media of political violence, cultural memory, collective identity, and social justice, focusing on modern and contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. He has been particularly involved in the Balkans, where he has worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia as an investigator and expert witness on the war-time destruction of cultural heritage; directed the Department of Culture at the United Nations Mission in Kosovo; and co-founded and co-directed the NGO, Kosovo Cultural Heritage Project, which has carried out the protection and restoration of historic works of architecture in the frame of community and social development programs. At the University of Michigan, he also runs the Rackham Faculty/Graduate Seminar on Human Rights.

Jan Svejnar, PhD
is the Everett E. Berg Professor of Business Administration, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, and Professor of Public Policy Analysis. His academic interests are in the areas of economic development and transition, labor economics and behavior of the firm. His research focuses on the determinants and effects of government policies on firms and labor and capital markets; corporate and national governance and performance; and entrepreneurship.

Jose Tapia, MBBCh, MPH, PhD
is Assistant Research Scientist with the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy (IRLEE). He earned his medical degree in Spain, and has performed as editor and Chief-Editor of Periodicals of the Washington DC Regional Office of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). He has taught classes and workshops in scientific publishing, international health, and economic development. His work on Sweden and Japan has been recently published in the "Journal of Health Economics" and "Demography". His research focuses on the relations between economic growth, macroeconomic fluctuations and health, and the pathways leading from working and living conditions to changes in mortality.

p> Katherine Terrell, PhD
is Professor of Public Policy Analysis at the Ford School and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the School of Business. Her work examines the impact of globalization and government programs and policies on the labor market. Her research and teaching focus on Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America where the transition to the global market economy has been dramatic in the last decade.

Miriam Ticktin, PhD
is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies with research interests in human rights, humanitarianism, and social justice; the anthropology of medicine, health, and social suffering; transnational feminisms and feminist theory; and immigration and “the new racisms” in Europe, particularly the economic, social, and political status of the les sans papiers in France.

Robert Zucker, PhD
is Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Director of the University of Michigan Addiction Research Center (UMARC), and Director of the Substance Abuse Section in the Department of Psychiatry. He directs two training programs for substance abuse researchers, one funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for the training of pre and post-doctoral fellows and post-residency physicians, the other an NIH/Fogarty International Center and National Institute on Drug Abuse co-funded project that supports a collaborative research training initiative to improve substance abuse research infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. This program is run in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, Poland, the Riga Stradins University in Riga, Latvia, the Institute and Centre for the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Social, Forensic Psychiatry and Narcology in Kiev. Dr. Zucker’s research focuses on the multilevel etiology of substance use disorders over the life course. He is particularly interested in the relationship of macrolevel influencing structures (community, neighborhood) to individual behavior, and the interplay between genetic vulnerability, brain function, behavior, socialization structure, and life phase task variation, in producing problem outcomes.

Arnold S. Monto, MD
is Professor of Epidemiology and founding Director of the Bioterrorism Preparedness Initiative. The major focus of his work has been the epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of acute infections, including work on prevention and treatment. Influenza has been a major research interest, with special reference to the evaluation of vaccines in various populations and the assessment of the value of antivirals such as amantadine, rimantadine and the neuraminidase inhibitors. He is currently involved in assessing the efficacy of live and inactivated vaccines in prophylaxis and the neuraminidase inhibitors in therapy of influenza, and working with US and international organizations on pandemic preparedness.

Kenneth Warner, PhD
is Dean of the School of Public Health, Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Tobacco Research Network. His research focuses on economic and policy aspects of disease prevention and health promotion, with a special emphasis on tobacco and health. He is on the editorial boards of three professional journals and chairs the board of the international journal Tobacco Control. He is a consultant to numerous governmental bodies, voluntary organizations, and businesses, and was a founding member of the board of directors of the American Legacy Foundation. During 2001–2003, Dr. Warner served as the World Bank’s representative to the negotiations on the world’s first international health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The FCTC is now international law, ratified by over 15 countries.