Human Development and Family Sciences

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D., Yale School of Public Health

Topic: The Impact of Neocolonialism on Global, Maternal, and Child Health

November 14, 2024 | 12:30 PM | WebEx

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Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D., is Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Office of Public Health Practice, the Global Health Concentration, and the Maternal Child Health Promotion track at the Yale School of Public Health. He is the PI of the Yale-Griffin CDC Prevention Research Center (PRC). His global public health nutrition and food security research program, supported with over $90 million in extramural funds, has contributed to improvements in breastfeeding and other maternal, infant and young child nutrition outcomes, iron deficiency anemia among infants, household food security, and early childhood development. He has co-led innovative mixed-methods implementation studies assessing the impact of community health worker person centered interventions on breastfeeding, type-2 diabetes, post-partum hypertension and mental health outcomes among vulnerable communities. He has published over 350 research articles. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (elected in 2019).

In Recognition of World AIDS Day

Lisa B. Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Topic: Technology-based HIV Prevention and Treatment Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults
December 5, 2024 | 12:30 PM | WebEx

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Lisa B. Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH is a Distinguished and Endowed McKenzie Professor in the College of Nursing at the Florida State University (FSU). She is the founding director of the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at FSU.
Dr. Hightow-Weidman is an expert in the development, implementation and evaluation of digital health interventions (DHIs) to address the HIV Care Continuum for adolescents and young adults, particularly among sexual and gender minority populations. Her research interests include technology-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions for adolescents and emerging adults, specifically interventions that incorporate game-based elements, self-monitoring and tracking and provision of social support to increase engagement and impact health behavior. She has developed technology-based interventions that aim to increase uptake and adherence to biomedical prevention and treatment, to increase HIV diagnosis, linkage and retention in care and to ameliorate stigma and increase resilience. She has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles on these topics and has a proven track record of successful funding from the National Institutes of Health, HIV/AIDS Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Recognition of Heart Health Month

Kenneth E. Freedland, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Topic: Cardiovascular Disease and Depression
February 27, 2025 | 12:30 PM | WebEx

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Dr. Freedland is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Most of his research has focused on depression in patients with heart failure or coronary heart disease. He has also conducted studies of other psychiatric comorbidities, behavioral problems such as poor self-care, and social determinants of health in patients with heart failure. He has been the principal investigator or a co-investigator on both single-site and multicenter trials of interventions for depression in cardiac patients and has served on clinical trial review committees for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). He also has expertise in behavioral trial methodology. Dr. Freedland is the founder of the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Cardiovascular Disease Special Interest Group and of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council, and a fellow of multiple organizations including the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. He was the Program Director of the annual NIH Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials from 2020 to 2024. He has been a member of the Summer Institute faculty since 2007 and the faculty of the NIH-funded ORBIT Institute on Developing Behavioral Treatments to Improve Health since 2022. He has also served as an Associate Editor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of Health Psychology.