Carolina Population Center

Jessica Halliday Hardie: Best Laid Plans: Women Coming of Age in Uncertain Times
2023-01-13 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On January 13, 2023, Jessica Halliday Hardie will present “Best Laid Plans: Women Coming of Age in Uncertain Times” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Jessica Hardie is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Family Demography and Individual Development at Penn State University.
She specializes in the areas of sociology of education, inequality, family, health, and the transition to adulthood, and her research explores factors that explain the intergenerational transmission of inequality at several stages in the life course. She has conducted qualitative and quantitative research on adolescent social capital, race and racism in high school, economic resources and romantic relationship quality among cohabiting and married couples, and the relationship between maternal health and child wellbeing. She is currently working on a longitudinal qualitative study of class and race differences in young women’s transitions to adulthood, with attention to how they balance work, school, and family life during this period.

Todd Jensen: Building a Productive Future for Family-Structure Research
2023-01-20 12:00 - 13:00
On January 20, 2023, Todd Jensen will present “Building a Productive Future for Family-Structure Research” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Dr. Jensen is a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, the Associate Director for Research in the Collaborative for Implementation Practice, and a Family Research and Engagement Specialist in the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Jensen’s scholarship focuses on promoting family well-being in diverse contexts; strengthening family-serving systems; and centering equity in family research, practice, and policy. Specifically, Dr. Jensen’s work attends to families experiencing relationship transitions and shifts in parental structure; family maltreatment prevention among military-connected families; promoting the use of data and evidence in family-serving systems; understanding the role of trusting relationships in optimizing the uptake of effective programs and practices in family-serving systems; advocating for inclusive definitions of family; and centering equity in the theory and methods used to study and support families.
Dr. Jensen’s professional activities are connected to more than 5.2 million dollars in extramural funding, including support from the National Institutes of Health, The Duke Endowment, the William T. Grant Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Jensen is co-founder and co-chair of the Diverse Family Structures Focus Group of the National Council on Family Relations, which has amassed over 130 scholars across the country and globe aiming to align research, practice, and policy with the complex realities of family relationships. He is also the leader of the Family Measurement Node and Steering Committee Member of the Life Course Intervention Research Network. As an award-winning educator, Dr. Jensen specializes in delivering graduate-level content related to family dynamics, child development, program evaluation, and advanced quantitative methodology.

Arianna Marie Planey
2023-02-03 12:00 - 13:00
On February 3, 2023, Arianna Marie Planey will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD, MA is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Fellow in the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. She is a health/medical geographer with expertise in measuring and conceptualizing health care access, health and healthcare equity, and spatial epidemiology. Her research and teaching focuses include the application of spatial analytic/statistical/epidemiologic methods to study interactions between health(care) policies, healthcare access and utilization and underlying, population-level health inequities, and identify points of intervention at structural- and system-levels.
Dr. Planey’s ongoing research includes collaborative studies of birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth weight) among Black immigrants in segregated neighborhoods, spatial mismatch by race and gender among workers in US metro areas, and the disparate effects of rural hospital closures on acute care access.

Stan Ahalt and Jay Aikat, UNC Data Science Institute
2023-02-10 12:00 - 13:00
On February 10, 2023, Stan Ahalt and Jay Aikat of the UNC Data Science Institute will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Stanley C. Ahalt is the Inaugural Dean of the UNC School of Data Science and Society (SDSS) and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also serves as Executive Adviser and Domain Scientist for Team Science at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at UNC and as Associate Director of Informatics and Data Science (IDSci) in the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS), UNC’s CTSA program.
Jay Aikat is the Senior Associate Dean of the School of Data Science and Society, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), a research institute within UNC-Chapel Hill. She is also a Research Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill since Dec 2011.

Caroline Thompson: Modernizing Metrics of Population Cancer Burden
2023-02-17 12:00 - 13:00
On February 17, 2023, Caroline Thompson (Epidemiology) will present “Modernizing Metrics of Population Cancer Burden” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Thompson‘s substantive research aims to describe and understand population-level patterns of cancer screening and diagnosis and to identify drivers of disparities in cancer-related healthcare delivery and outcomes across populations. Methodologically, she is interested in improving the valid research-use of complex, longitudinal sources of routine healthcare data (e.g., medical claims and electronic health records) and the use of quantitative bias analysis to evaluate the impact of suspected sources of systematic error in observational research.

Larissa Jennings Mayo-Wilson
2023-02-24 12:00 - 13:00
On February 24, 2023, Larissa Jennings Mayo-Wilson will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Larissa Jennings Mayo-Wilson, PhD MHS, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a sexual and reproductive health behavioral scientist with methodological skills in epidemiology, biostatistics, and qualitative science.
Dr. Jennings Mayo-Wilson’s research focuses on improving sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including HIV prevention, in vulnerable adolescents and young adults in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, she is interested in: (i) design and evaluation of economic-strengthening interventions to reduce inequities in HIV/SRH, including microenterprise, cash transfers, savings, and financial incentives; (ii) analysis of economic and structural causes of disparities in HIV/SRH, and (iii) use of mobile health technologies to improve implementation and evaluation of HIV/SRH interventions. Her research also examines socio-economic influences on maternal health care-seeking and uptake of assisted reproductive technologies.

Kristen Lindquist
2023-03-03 12:00 - 13:00
On March 3, 2023, Kristen Lindquist will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Kristen Lindquist, PhD. is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research seeks to understand the psychological and neural basis of emotions, moods, and feelings. Her on-going work uses tools from social cognition, physiology, neuroscience, and big data methods to examine how emotions emerge from the confluence of the body, brain, and culture.

Joel Gittelsohn: Environmental interventions to improve healthy food access and prevent obesity in Baltimore: Moving beyond corner stores
2023-03-10 12:00 - 13:00
On January 27, 2023, Joel Gittelsohn will present “Environmental interventions to improve healthy food access and prevent obesity in Baltimore: Moving beyond corner stores” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Joel Gittelsohn, PhD, MS, is a medical anthropologist and public health nutritionist who develops programs to improve food access and reduce risk for chronic diseases.

Hudson Santos
2023-03-24 12:00 - 13:00
On March 24, 2023, Hudson Santos will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Hudson Santos is Professor and the Dolores J. Chambreau Endowed Chair in Nursing at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS). Born in Brazil, Dr. Santos immigrated to the US to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University School of Nursing (2015) after obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the State University of Paraiba, and a PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Sao Paulo. As a doctoral student, he spent a year as visiting scholar between the University of British Columbia at Vancouver and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Santos was a tenured distinguished associate professor and director of the biobehavioral laboratory at UNC-CH School of Nursing.
Dr. Santos is an internationally renowned nurse researcher and principal investigator of multiple funded studies focused on the mechanisms of social determinants of health (SDOH) and developmental health trajectories for at-risk populations, with a strong emphasis on Latinx communities. Specifically, he explores how SDOH, and adverse life events affect maternal-child health and developmental outcomes among at-risk children. His methodological expertise includes bio-social studies, longitudinal cohorts, and clinical interventions. His work bridges the gap between the biological and social domains in nursing science, addressing the developmental origins of health and disease.

Sarah Burgard: Remembrance of things past? Measuring life course exposures as determinants of health
2023-04-21 12:00 - 13:00
On April 21, 2022, Sarah Burgard will present “Remembrance of things past? Measuring life course exposures as determinants of health” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Bio: I am a professor of Sociology and by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Public Policy. I am also a Research Professor in the Population Studies Center and Research Affiliate in the Survey Research Center, both at the Institute for Social Research, and am the incoming director of the Population Studies Center. I have a publication record in social and health science journals in the areas of the life course determinants of health and wellbeing in later life and related health disparities, and have received funding for my research and for data collection in these areas from NIH and private foundations. I am currently an affiliate and Advisory Panel member for the Michigan Center for the Demography of Aging (MICDA), a Technical Review Committee member of the National Longitudinal Studies program of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a former member on the Population Association Board of Directors. I also led implementation of the Institute for Social Research Strategic plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for three years.
I conduct research on the social stratification of aging and health with population-based survey data, and have published extensively on the social factors underlying health disparities by socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity across the life course. I have focused particularly on the links between employment and health in later life, including mental health, chronic disease and overall health status, and health behaviors. Some of my recent research and funding has centered on understanding these questions in the context of economic recessions, which disrupt career, economic, and health paths for many adults, but especially for socioeconomically-marginalized groups. I am PI of the 2020 Americans’ Changing Lives Study ACLLIFE wave, which will collect full retrospective life histories including extensive information about life events from a cohort now in their late 50s, and a PI of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study, a panel survey of adults in Southeast Michigan that has been tracking the life events and mental health of these individuals in the wake of the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Using these data, I have published on the influences of job loss, financial shocks, debt, housing instability, and material hardship, with a focus on creating life course measures of cumulative disadvantage for which retrospective or prospective life history data are essential.

Julia Behrman: Family Size Ideals in Flux? Change and Variation in the United States
2023-04-28 12:00 - 13:00
On April 28, 2023, Julia Behrman (Northwestern) will present “Family Size Ideals in Flux? Change and Variation in the United States” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Julia Behrman’s research investigates the causes and consequences of family change in a global perspective. Her research explores how the institution of the family shapes and is shaped by key social phenomenon in four main areas: (i) educational expansion; (ii) environmental change, natural disaster and climate shocks; (iii) expansion of women’s labor force participation; and (iv) migration. Much of her work is motivated by questions of power: who has power within families and how is it manifested? What events or experiences lead to changes in power dynamics within families? Do changes in family structures alleviate or perpetuate disadvantage between and within families?
Behrman’s research has received funding from the National Science Foundation and South African Medical Research Council and her work has received awards from American Sociological Association Sections on Education, Population, and Development; the Society for the Study of Social Problems; the Population Association of America; and the Sociologist AIDS Network. Prior to starting at Northwestern, she was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Sociology at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She received her PhD from New York University in 2017.
