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U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health (2013)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
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Appendix B

Biographical Sketches of
Panel Members and Staff

Steven H. Woolf (Chair) is director of the Center on Human Needs and professor of family medicine, both at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is board certified in family medicine and in preventive medicine and public health. His work has focused on promoting effective health care services and on highlighting the importance of behavioral and social determinants of health, particularly with regard to the role of poverty, education, and racial and ethnic disparities in determining the health of Americans. In addition to his work as a researcher, he has also been involved with health policy issues. He has served as science adviser, member, and senior adviser to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He has an M.D. from Emory University and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

Laudan (Laudy) Aron (Study Director) is a senior program officer with the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council. Previously, she worked as a senior research associate with the Urban Institute and as director of policy research at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She has conducted and managed research and policy analysis on many issues that affect vulnerable populations, including health, behavioral health, and disability; education, special education, and alternative education; child welfare and at-risk youth; housing and homelessness; and family violence and human trafficking. She has coauthored books on homelessness and publicly funded programs for children with disabilities. She holds a B.Sc. in mathematics from McGill University and an M.A. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×

Paula A. Braveman is professor of family and community medicine and director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research has focused on measuring, documenting, and understanding socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health, particularly in maternal and infant health. She collaborates extensively with local, state, federal, and international health agencies to support the translation of research into policies and programs. She serves on the Advisory Council of the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health and in an advisory capacity to several federal agencies regarding research on social inequalities in health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine. She holds an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kaare Christensen is professor of epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark and senior research scientist in the Department of Public Policy Studies at Duke University. His research is focused on genetic epidemiology, twin studies, aging, age-related diseases, and fetal programming. He is engaged in interdisciplinary aging research combining methods from epidemiology, genetics, and demography. His recent work has covered divergent life expectancy trends in Denmark and Sweden, with some potential explanations, and genetic factors and adult mortality. He holds a D.M.Sc. from the University of Southern Denmark and an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Odense University.

Eileen M. Crimmins is the AARP chair in gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). She leads the Center on Biodemography and Population Health, a joint endeavor of USC and the University of California, Los Angeles, and codirects the Network on Biological Risk sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Her research focuses on the connections between social and environmental factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes. Much of her work has been on trends in mortality, morbidity, and healthy life expectancy. She is a recipient of the Kleemeier Award for Research from the Gerontological Society of America. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in demography, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ana V. Diez Roux is a professor of epidemiology and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, where she also directs the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health. Her research areas include social epidemiology, environmental health effects, urban health, psychosocial factors in health, health

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×

disparities, and cardiovascular disease epidemiology. She has been deeply involved in the investigation of neighborhood and community health effects and the application of multilevel analysis in public health. Other areas of research include the integration of social and biologic factors in health research, complex systems approaches to population health, the impact of stress on cardiovascular disease, and air pollution effects on health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine. She was recently awarded the Wade Hampton Frost Award of the American Public Health Association for her contributions to public health. She holds an M.D. from the University of Buenos Aires and an M.P.H. and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Dean T. Jamison is a professor of global health at the University of Washington. Previously, he was on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, and he also spent many years at the World Bank where he was a senior economist in the research department; division chief for education policy; and division chief for population, health, and nutrition. He served as director of the World Development Report Office and as lead author for the World Bank’s World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. His research and publications are in the areas of economic theory, public health, and education. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He holds an M.S. in engineering sciences from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Johan P. Mackenbach is a professor of public health and chair of the Department of Public Health at Erasmus University Medical Center at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He is also an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research interests are in social epidemiology, medical demography, and health services research. He has served as the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Public Health and has coordinated a number of international comparative studies funded by the European Commission. His current research focuses on socioeconomic inequalities in health, on issues related to aging and the compression of morbidity, and on the effectiveness and quality of health services. He is actively engaged in exchanges between researchers and policy analysts, among others, as a member of the Health Council and the Council for Public Health and Health Care in the Netherlands. He holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in public health, both from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

David V. McQueen is a behavioral scientist, currently serving as an adjunct professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Previously, he held several positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including associate director for Global Health Promotion, director of the Division of Adult and Community Health at the National Center for

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×

Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), and chief of the national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. He also previously served as professor and director of the Research Unit in Health and Behavioral Change at the University of Edinburgh. He is the immediate past president of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), as well as leader of the IUHPE Global Programme on Health Promotion Effectiveness. He holds an M.A. in history and philosophy of science and a Sc.D. in behavioral sciences, both from Johns Hopkins University.

Alberto Palloni is the Samuel H. Preston professor of sociology and population studies at the University of Wisconsin. His research explores the relation between early health and aggregate inequality in high-income countries. His work covers determinants of adult mortality and health disparities, adult health and mortality in low-income countries, statistical applications in population analyses, mathematical models for population dynamics, models for the analysis of self-reported health data, aging in developing countries, the effects of HIV/AIDS on families and households in sub-Saharan Africa, and the relationships between early health status and adult socioeconomic achievement and health status. His recent research has assessed the impact of selection mechanisms arising from early childhood experience on adult socioeconomic differentials in health and mortality in high-income countries. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds a B.S. from the Catholic University of Chile and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Samuel H. Preston is a professor of demography and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His major research interest is the health of populations, with primary attention to mortality trends and patterns in large aggregates, including 20th century mortality transitions and black/white differentials in the United States. His recent research has focused on the mortality effects of cigarette smoking and obesity in developed countries. He is a recipient of the Taeuber and Sheps Awards from the Population Association of America, and he was a laureate of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society, and a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics, both from Princeton University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×
Page 375
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×
Page 376
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×
Page 377
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13497.
×
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The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries.

In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings.

U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

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