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Committee Biographical Sketches

Jennifer E. DeVoe, M.D., D.Phil. (Chair), is chair of and Saultz Endowed Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). As a practicing family physician and doctorally trained health services researcher, Dr. DeVoe studies access to health care, disparities in care, and the impact of practice and policy interventions on vulnerable populations. Her research portfolio spans both OHSU Family Medicine and OCHIN, Inc., a national community health information network based in Portland, Oregon. Dr. DeVoe leads a multidisciplinary research team with expertise in informatics, sociology, epidemiology, biostatistics, economics, primary care, mental health, health services research, clinical medicine, health care disparities, and anthropology. Dr. DeVoe is the senior research advisor at OCHIN, where she previously served as chief research officer and executive director of its practice-based research network of community health centers from 2010 to 2016. Dr. DeVoe is a principal investigator (PI) or co-investigator on numerous research studies funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the National Cancer Institute; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute with nearly $20 million in active grant funding. She also serves as co-PI of the ADVANCE Clinical Data Research Network, part of PCORnet, which is “horizontally” integrating electronic health record data, creating a unique community laboratory to include disadvantaged and vulnerable patients across the country. She holds joint appointments in the OHSU Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical

Epidemiology and the Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research. She also serves on the National Core Team for Family Medicine for America’s Health Board of Directors and is past president of the North American Primary Care Research Group. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2014. Dr. DeVoe served as an NAM Puffer/American Board of Family Medicine anniversary fellow from 2012 to 2014, and she was on the National Academies’ Committee on Accessible and Affordable Hearing Health Care for Adults from 2015 to 2016. Dr. DeVoe earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1999. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1996, she also earned an M.Phil. and a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1998 and 2001, respectively. She completed her family medicine residency at OHSU in 2004 and earned an M.C.R. from OHSU in 2010.

Cynthia García Coll, Ph.D., is currently an adjunct professor in the Pediatrics Department at the University of Puerto Rico Medical School and the Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor Emerita at Brown University. Previously, Dr. García Coll was a professor in the clinical Ph.D. program and associate director of the Institutional Center for Scientific Research at Albizu University in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Prior to moving back to Puerto Rico, she spent 30 years at Brown University. Her research focuses on the interplay of sociocultural and biological influences on child development, with particular emphasis on at-risk and minority populations. She received her Ph.D. in personality and developmental psychology from Harvard University. Dr. García Coll has served on the editorial boards of many leading academic journals, including as the senior editor of Child Development and Developmental Psychology. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. She has received awards from Tufts University and Brown University, the Erikson Institute, the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), and Progreso Latino. She has been on the governing boards of the United Way of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Community Foundation, SRCD, Society for the Study of Human Development, and Foundation of Child Development. She also served as member and chair of the Young Scholars Program at the William T. Grant Foundation for 11 years. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the McArthur Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

Elizabeth E. Davis, Ph.D., is a professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota and recently served as a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Financing Early Care and Education with a

Highly Qualified Workforce. Dr. Davis conducts research in economics and public policy related to low-income families, child care and early education, and low-wage and rural labor markets in the United States. Her recent research has focused on disparities in access to high-quality child care, including development of new measures of access that are family centered and take cost, proximity, and quality into account. Other studies on early childhood topics have examined the role of child care subsidies in families’ decisions about employment and the type, quality, and stability of child care arrangements. In related work, she has examined the dynamics of participation in child care subsidy programs in Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon and advised state and federal agencies on child care subsidy policy. Her other research has examined the impact of local competition on wages and job turnover in the retail food industry, income equality, and the relationship between local labor market conditions and employment outcomes for disadvantaged workers. Dr. Davis earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Nadine Burke Harris, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, is the first Surgeon General of California (appointed February 2019). Before her appointment, Dr. Burke Harris was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Center for Youth Wellness. She is a pioneer in the field of medicine, dedicated to changing the way society responds to one of the most serious, expensive, and widespread public health crises of our time: childhood trauma. As founder and CEO of the Center, Dr. Burke Harris has brought this critical work to stages at the Mayo Clinic, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), The Aspen Institute, and Partnership for a Healthier America. Her TED Talk, “How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime,” has been viewed more than 3.8 million times. Her work has been profiled in best-selling books, including How Children Succeed by Paul Tough and Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance, as well as in Jamie Redford’s feature film Resilience. It has also been featured on CNN, NPR, and Fox News and in USA Today and The New York Times. Dr. Burke Harris wrote a book on the issue of childhood adversity and health called The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, which released in January 2018. Dr. Burke Harris received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award, presented by AAP, and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition. Additionally, she serves as an expert advisor to the Too Small to Fail initiative and as a member of AAP’s National Advisory Board for Screening.

Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., is the chief research innovation officer and director of the Center for Early Education Research and Evaluation at HighScope Educational Research Foundation. Prior to joining HighScope, she was at the Buffet Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska

and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Iruka’s research focuses on determining how early experiences impact the learning and development of low-income and ethnic minority children and the role of the family and education environments and systems. She is engaged in projects and initiatives focused on how evidence-informed policies, systems, and practices in early education can support the optimal development and experiences of low-income, ethnic minority, and immigrant children, such as through family engagement and support, quality rating and improvement systems, and early care and education systems and programs. She is co–principal investigator for the Institute of Education Sciences–funded Early Learning Network, Nebraska Site, a large-scale and far-reaching study aimed at identifying malleable factors that support early learning in preschool through 3rd grade that may be effective at closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged students. In particular, she has been engaged in addressing how to best ensure excellence for young diverse learners, especially black children, such as through development of a classroom observation measure, public policies, and publications geared toward early education practitioners and policy makers. She has served on numerous national boards and committees, including the National Academies’ Committee on Supporting the Parents of Young Children and the National Research Conference on Early Childhood. Dr. Iruka has a B.A. in psychology from Temple University, an M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from the University of Miami.

Pat R. Levitt, Ph.D., is the chief scientific officer, vice president, and director of the Saban Research Institute. He is also a professor of Pediatrics, the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the W.M. Keck Provost Professor in Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He is the chief scientific officer for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Levitt has held leadership positions at the University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Southern California. In 2013, Dr. Levitt was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Named a McKnight Foundation Scholar in 2002, Dr. Levitt also was a MERIT awardee from the National Institute of Mental Health and served as a member of its National Advisory Mental Health Council. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, serving as the Neuroscience Section Chair in 2014–2015, and an elected member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. He is a senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and serves as co–scientific director of the National Scientific Council

on the Developing Child, a policy council that brings the best research from child development and neuroscience to assist policy makers and business leaders in making wise program investment decisions. He is a member of scientific advisory boards for several foundations and university programs and currently serves as editor-in-chief of Mind, Brain, and Education and on several editorial boards. Dr. Levitt’s research program includes basic and clinical studies to identify the genetic and environmental factors that ensure healthy development of the brain architecture that controls learning and emotional and social behavior. His clinical research studies address how toxic stress responses in infants and toddlers may be detected as early as possible to promote resilience and better prevention, and children with autism who also have co-occurring medical conditions, such as gastrointestinal disorders. Dr. Levitt has published 295 scientific papers and made hundreds of academic and public presentations. He received his B.A. in biological sciences from The University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Yale University.

Michael C. Lu, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., is the dean of the University of California (UC), Berkeley’s School of Public Health (term began in July 2019). Before his appointment, Dr. Lu was a professor and the senior associate dean for academic, student, and faculty affairs at The George Washington (GW) University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Prior to joining GW, Dr. Lu was the director of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2012 to 2017. During his tenure, Dr. Lu transformed key federal programs in maternal and child health, launched major initiatives to reduce maternal, infant, and child mortality in the United States, and received the prestigious Herbert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America. Dr. Lu joined the federal government from the UC Los Angeles Schools of Medicine and Public Health, where he held a joint faculty appointment in obstetrics-gynecology and community health sciences for nearly 15 years. He was best known for his research on racial/ethnic disparities in birth outcomes and his leadership in developing, testing, and translating a theory on the origins of maternal and child health disparities based on the life course perspective. Dr. Lu has served on two Institute of Medicine (IOM) committees: Committee to Reexamine IOM Pregnancy Weight Guidelines and Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Healthy Outcomes. Dr. Lu received his B.A. in political science and human biology from Stanford University, an M.A. in health and medical sciences and public health from UC Berkeley, a medical degree from UC San Francisco, and his residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from UC Irvine.

Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D., is a Foundation Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and professor emerita at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Dr. Luthar’s research involves vulnerability and resilience among various populations, including youth in poverty, families affected by mental illness, mothers under stress, and teens in high-achieving, affluent communities (who reflect high rates of symptoms relative to national norms). Previously, she served on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and the Child Study Center at Yale University and then at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Dr. Luthar is a fellow of the American Association for Psychological Science and American Psychological Association (APA) Divisions 7 and 37. She received the Boyd McCandless Young Scientist Award from APA, a Research Scientist Development (K) Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an American Mensa Foundation Award for Excellence in Research on Intelligence, and an award for Integrity and Mentorship from the Society for Research in Child Development’s Asian Caucus. Dr. Luthar’s work is frequently cited in major news outlets in the United States, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, NPR, PBS, and CNN, as well as overseas. Dr. Luthar has served as chair of a grant review study section at NIH and a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research on Child Development. At APA, she served on the Committee on Socioeconomic Status and its Council of Representatives, and she is currently president of Division 7 (Developmental). Dr. Luthar received her B.S. and M.S. from Delhi University in 1978 and 1980, respectively, and her Ph.D. (Distinction) in developmental/clinical psychology from Yale University in 1990.

Amy Rohling McGee, M.S.W., has served as the president of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, a nonpartisan, independent, nonprofit organization that provides information and analysis to state policy makers, since 2010. Her prior public-sector experience includes work in the executive branch of state government focused on policy related to issues such as health insurance, health system improvement, health information technology, and Medicaid. She served in the state legislature as a Legislative Service Commission intern in the mid-1990s. Her private-sector experience includes 5 years as the executive director of the Ohio Association of Free Clinics, representing health clinics that served the uninsured, primarily through volunteers, and several years in a management position at FIRSTLINK (now HandsOn Central Ohio). Ms. McGee earned her B.A. and M.A. from The Ohio State University. She has received the Business First “Forty under Forty” award and The Ohio State University Alumni Association William Oxley Thompson award.

Myra Parker, Ph.D., J.D. (Mandan-Hidatsa-Cree) is an assistant professor in the Center for the Studies of Health and Risk Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine. She also works at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Dr. Parker has worked for more than 10 years on tribal public health program implementation and coordination with tribal communities in Arizona, Idaho, and Washington and tribal colleges and universities across the United States. She has more than 5 years of experience in tribal public health research. Prior to embarking on a career in research, Dr. Parker worked for 5 years in the policy arena within the Arizona state government, in tribal governments, and with tribal working groups at the state and national levels. Her research experience in public health involves community-based participatory research, cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions, and disparities research. She received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Junior Investigator grant in 2011, 1 year into her postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Parker’s research on this project focused on alcohol-related fatalities and tribal cross-jurisdictional agreements with local non-Native communities. She has provided trainings to tribal health department staff, tribal research teams, and urban Indian service delivery teams. She has also provided indigenous health research training to University of Washington students, from undergraduates through Ph.D. students. As an enrolled member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, she is aware of the historical health practices and misconduct perpetuated on tribes and other minority and disenfranchised populations in the United States. Her background in law and policy has informed a broader understanding of the principles of ethics and honed her skills in identifying methods to address the disparities in research control and access through the use of formalized agreements. She has experience in working with tribes in their ongoing efforts to balance the collective rights of communities and individuals. Dr. Parker received her B.A. in human biology from Stanford University. She received a J.D. from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona in 2001, with an emphasis in federal Indian law. She received her M.A. in public health from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman School of Public Health at the University of Arizona in 2002. Dr. Parker graduated with a Ph.D. in health services from the University of Washington School of Public Health in 2010.

James M. Perrin, M.D., is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, the former director of the Division of General Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for Children, and the associate chair of pediatrics for research at MGH. His research has examined asthma, middle ear disease, children’s hospitalization, health insurance,

and childhood chronic illness and disabilities, with recent emphases on the epidemiology of childhood chronic illness and organization of services for the care of children and adolescents with chronic health conditions. Dr. Perrin holds the John C. Robinson, MD, Chair in Pediatrics; founded the MGH Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy (a multidisciplinary research and training center with an active fellowship program in general pediatrics); and directed the center for more than 15 years. He is former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, former chair of its Committee on Children with Disabilities, past president of the Ambulatory (Academic) Pediatric Association, and founding editor-in-chief of its journal, Academic Pediatrics. He also directed the Evidence Working Group reporting to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders and Genetic Diseases in Newborns and Children. Dr. Perrin was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016. He currently serves on the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and has previously served on the National Academies’ Committee on Improving Health Outcomes for Children with Disabilities and Committee to Evaluate the Supplemental Security Income Disability Program for Children with Mental Disorders, as well as earlier committees on long-term care quality, disability in the United States, and the evaluation of federal health care quality activities. Dr. Perrin earned his A.B. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He had his residency and fellowship training at the University of Rochester.

Natalie Slopen, Sc.D., M.A., is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Health. Dr. Slopen’s research focuses on social influences on health, health disparities, and psychological and biological mechanisms through which childhood experiences are embedded to increase risk for later chronic diseases. The overarching goal of her research is to identify processes and conditions that can be targeted by interventions in order to reduce health disparities and promote health over the life course. Dr. Slopen completed her Master of Arts in Social Sciences at The University of Chicago, her Doctorate of Science in Social Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her postdoctoral fellowship training at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

Albert Wat, M.A., is a senior policy director at the Alliance for Early Success, where he supports the organization’s strategy and goals for early education, including increasing access to high-quality pre-kindergarten (pre-K), improving the early learning workforce, and enhancing alignment

with K–12 policies. Before joining the Alliance, Mr. Wat was a senior policy analyst in the Education Division of the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, where he helped governors’ staff and advisors improve their early care and education policies from early childhood through 3rd grade. Prior to NGA, Mr. Wat was the research manager at Pre-K Now, an advocacy campaign at the Pew Center on the States, where he authored a number of policy reports, managed research activities for the initiative, and provided analysis and information about the latest pre-K and early education research and policy developments to Pre-K Now staff and its network of state partners. In 2014, Mr. Wat served on the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council’s Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8: Deepening and Broadening the Foundation for Success, which released the report Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation in April 2015. He also serves on the board of the Council for Professional Recognition. Mr. Wat has worked with schools, school reform nonprofits, and community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, southeastern Michigan, and Washington, DC. He holds a B.A. in psychology, an M.A. in education from Stanford University, and an M.A. in education policy from The George Washington University.

Bill J. Wright, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Education, an organization devoted to conducting innovative health policy and health services research in support of health care transformation, with an emphasis on the social determinants of health. As a sociologist whose primary emphasis is on longitudinal survey research on vulnerable or underserved populations, Dr. Wright has led the design and implementation of numerous panel studies assessing the impacts of health systems and policy changes on historically underserved or excluded communities. Dr. Wright was a principal investigator on the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, the first randomized trial assessing the impacts of health insurance expansion, and currently oversees a portfolio of research on the impact of social needs and adversity on health and health care outcomes in vulnerable populations. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from South Dakota State University.

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