Carolina Population Center

Ashton Verdery: COVID-19, bereavement, and downstream health challenges
2022-04-01 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On April 1, 2022, Ashton Verdery, Associate Professor of Sociology & Demography at Pennsylvania State University, will present “COVID-19, bereavement, and downstream health challenges” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Verdery’s research focuses on social networks: how and why people are socially connected to each other and the consequences of those connections. Within this broad area, he is especially interested in demographic processes, specifically how population dynamics shape family, kinship, and social networks and how those networks in turn affect health and other population processes. Dr. Verdery is a graduate of CPC’s Training Program.
Abstract: Millions around the world are grieving the loss of loved ones from COVID-19, but prior research has not tested whether COVID-19-related bereavement presents unique health risks compared to other forms of bereavement. If bereavement from COVID-19 is more strongly associated with health challenges than bereavement more generally, large cohorts of newly bereaved individuals may create lasting population health challenges in heavily affected countries. Using population-based data and a pseudo-experimental, difference-in-difference research design, we test whether associations between family bereavement and depression differ when bereavement is caused by COVID-19 compared to other causes. Consistent with past scholarship, we find strong associations between family bereavement and depression and that self-reported depression appears to have decreased during the pandemic. However, our difference-in-difference estimates indicate that experiencing COVID-19-related family bereavement is more strongly associated with depression than non-COVID-19 forms of bereavement, a finding that is robust across numerous specifications related to duration since exposure and type of family member lost, but that shows some variation across subpopulations by gender, age, and severity of local COVID-19 mortality shock. This research raises new concerns about the long-run implications of the COVID-19 pandemic’s secondary impacts, further underscores the health risks associated with bereavement more generally, and highlights how acute mortality shocks of different sorts can create cascading population health challenges. Coauthors: Haowei Wang, Emily Smith-Greenaway, Shawn Bauldry, and Rachel Margolis.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Shaping an integrated response at the intersection of mental health, substance use, and HIV within the IeDEA consortium
2022-04-01 12:30 - 14:00
Kathryn Lancaster, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor in Epidemiology
College of Public Health, The Ohio State University
Angela Parcesepe, PhD, MPH, MSW
Assistant Professor, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) consortium was established by the NIH in 2006 to provide a rich resource for globally diverse HIV data to address HIV-related research questions that were not possible to answer with currently existing individual cohorts. The IeDEA consortium collects observational data representing over 2.2 million people living with and at risk for HIV contributed by clinical centers and research groups across 44 countries and 7 geographic regions.
In this talk, we will discuss the IeDEA’s consortium research at the intersection of mental health, substance use, and HIV treatment. Mental health and substance use disorders are among the most common comorbidities among people with HIV globally and have been associated with poor quality of life and HIV care continuum outcomes including delayed HIV diagnosis, suboptimal ART adherence, and virologic failure.
This talk will focus on mental health and substance use research priorities related to the implementation and scale up of ‘Treat All’ policies throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the integration of mental health and substance use services at HIV clinics throughout the IeDEA consortium, regional research examining the intersection of depression, heavy episodic drinking, and HIV disclosure among people with HIV in IeDEA Cameroon, and the recent launch of longitudinal cohorts of aging people with HIV (the IeDEA Sentinel Research Network) and adolescents and young adults with HIV (AYANI) in IeDEA. Finally, we will discuss future directions for research at the intersection of mental health, substance use, and HIV treatment in the IeDEA consortium and beyond.
Email darcommunications@nih.gov for passcode

April Women's Health Seminar - Global Women's Health
2022-04-21 11:30 - 12:30
Dr. Joanna Maselko, ScD (Associate Professor, Epidemiology; CPC Fellow), Dr. Clare Barrington, PhD (Associate Professor, Health Behavior; CPC Fellow), and Dr. Ben Chi, MD MSc (Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology) will be presenting their research in the Women’s Health Research Seminar Series.
For more information, please visit https://www.med.unc.edu/pathology/mcp/pbts/womens-health-multidisciplinary-consortium/

David Meltzer: Improving Care for Patients at Increased Risk of Hospitalization: Translating the Comprehensive Care Physician Model from Theory to Practice and Policy
2022-04-22 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On April 22, 2022, David Meltzer will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
David O. Meltzer is Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine, Director of the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, and Chair of the Committee on Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Chicago, where he is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and affiliated faculty at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics. Meltzer’s research explores problems in health economics and public policy with a focus on the theoretical foundations of medical cost-effectiveness analysis and the cost and quality of hospital care. Meltzer has performed randomized trials comparing the use of doctors who specialize in inpatient care (“hospitalists”). He is currently leading a Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Innovation Challenge award to study the effects of improved continuity in the doctor patient relationship between the inpatient and outpatient setting on the costs and outcomes of care for frequently hospitalized Medicare patients. He led the formation of the Chicago Learning Effectiveness Advancement Research Network (Chicago LEARN) that helped pioneer collaboration of Chicago-Area academic medical centers in hospital-based comparative effectiveness research and the recent support of the Chicago Area Patient Centered Outcomes Research Network (CAPriCORN) by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Meltzer received his MD and PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Meltzer is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lee Lusted Prize of the Society for Medical Decision Making, the Health Care Research Award of the National Institute for Health Care Management, and the Eugene Garfield Award from Research America. Meltzer is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and past president of the Society for Medical Decision Making. He has served on several IOM panels, include one examining U.S. organ allocation policy and the recent panel on the Learning Health Care System that produced Best Care at Lower Cost. He also has served on the DHHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Healthy People 2020, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Methodology Committee, as a Council Member of the National Institute for General Medical Studies, and as a health economics advisor for the Congressional Budget Office.

Adolescent Romance in the Digital Age: Insights from a Mobile Diary Study
2022-04-28 15:00 - 16:30
The 2022 J. Richard Udry Distinguished Lecture will be presented by Dr. Marta Tienda, the Maurice P. During ’22 Professor in Demographic Studies, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, with joint affiliations in the Office of Population Research and The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
From 1997 to 2002, she served as director of the Office of Population Research. She is co-author and co-editor of several books, including The Hispanic Population of the United States (1987), Divided Opportunities (1988), The Color of Opportunity (2001), Youth in Cities (2002). Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms (2005),Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies (2006), Hispanics and the Future of America (2006), and Africa on the Move (2006). She has published over 200 scholarly papers in academic journals and edited collections, in addition to numerous research bulletins and articles for a lay audience. She holds a BA in Spanish from Michigan State University and a MA and Ph.D., both in Sociology, from the University of Texas at Austin. She received honorary doctorates from The Ohio State University (2002), Lehman College (2003), and Bank Street College (2006). She will receive an honorary doctorate from her alma mater Michigan State University, once in-person activities resume.

2022 Add Health Users Conference
2022-07-11 - 2022-07-12 | Rizzo Center, 150 DuBose Home Ln, Chapel Hill, NC, 27517, United States
Join us on Monday, July 11th and Tuesday, July 12th for the 14th Add Health Users Conference at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Registration is free and will be open from January 5th, 2022 through June 17th, 2022.
Abstracts can be submitted beginning Wednesday, January 5, 2022, via the Abstract Submission page. The deadline to submit abstracts is Monday, March 21, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
View the Call for Papers for more information and suggested topic areas. Questions? Email the conference organizers at addhealth_conference@unc.edu.

Justin Lessler, Running and Evaluating a Multi-team Scenario Modeling Effort for COVID-19: a year and a half of the Scenario Modeling Hub
2022-08-26 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On August 26, 2022, Justin Lessler will present “Running and Evaluating a Multi-team Scenario Modeling Effort for COVID-19: a year and a half of the Scenario Modeling Hub” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Lessler is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology researching the dynamics and control of infectious disease, with particular interest in SARS-CoV-2, influenza, cholera and dengue. Justin works on the development and application of statistics, dynamic models and novel study designs to better understand and control infectious disease. In particular, he is interested in creating synergies between infection control practice, data collection and infectious disease dynamics.

Ted Mouw: Introduction to the Triangle RDC
2022-09-09 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 9, 2022, Ted Mouw (Sociology) will present “Introduction to the Triangle RDC” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Mouw is a sociologist who studies labor markets, immigration, and social networks. His current research involves the mobility of low-wage workers, the economic incorporation of immigrants, and methods to collect samples from rare or hidden populations using social networks.

CANCELED: Caroline Thompson: Modernizing Metrics of Population Cancer Burden
2022-09-16 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
This event has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.
On September 16, 2022, 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.

Marcos Rangel, First Impressions Matter: Evidence from Elementary-School Teachers
2022-09-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 23, 2022, Marcos Rangel will present “First Impressions Matter: Evidence from Elementary-School Teachers” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Rangel is an applied microeconomist. His research focuses on the patterns of accumulation of human capital with particular attention to the intra-family decision process (parents and children), to the impact of policies to foment education and health, and to racial differentials. His research has contributed to a better understanding of how the negotiations between mother and fathers, and also how families insert themselves into societies, influence the allocation of resources towards investment in human capital of children.

Abstract:

We study the empirical relevance of first impressions in the context of education. We find that teachers who begin their careers in classrooms with large White-Black incoming score differentials carry negative views into evaluations of future cohorts of Black students relative to their White classmates. Our evidence is based on novel data on blind evaluations and non-blind public school teacher assessments of fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina. Teachers’ perceptions are particularly sensitive to relatively low-performing Black students in early classrooms, but not to relatively high-performing Black students. Since teacher expectations can shape grading patterns and sorting into academic tracks as well as students’ own beliefs and behaviors, these findings suggest an important link between specific novice teachers’ initial experiences and the persistence of racial gaps in educational achievement and attainment.

CANCELED: Julia Behrman, Family Size Ideals in Flux? Change and Variation in the United States
2022-09-30 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 30, 2022, 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.

Chuck Huber, Intro to Survey Statistics Using Stata
2022-10-07 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 7, 2022, Chuck Huber will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Chuck Huber is Associate Director of Statistical Outreach at StataCorp and Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. In addition to working with Stata’s team of software developers, he produces instructional videos for the Stata Youtube channel, writes blog entries, develops online NetCourses and gives talks about Stata at conferences and universities. Most of his current work is focused on statistical methods used by behavioral and health scientists. He has published in the areas of neurology, human and animal genetics, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, nutrition and birth defects. Dr. Huber currently teaches introductory biostatistics at Texas A&M where he previously taught categorical data analysis, survey data analysis, and statistical genetics.
Abstract
This talk will review the concepts of probability and nonprobability sampling, sampling with and without replacement, and introduce the finite population correction factor. We introduce the major sampling designs, how to calculate sample weights, and how to use Stata’s “svyset” command to prepare data for analyses that account for the sampling design. We will then demonstrate how to analyze data with these characteristics.

Sadé Lindsay: Predatory Inclusion and Cumulative Disadvantage in a Skilled Trade Labor Market
2022-10-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 28, 2022, Sadé Lindsay (Sociology) will present “Predatory Inclusion and Cumulative Disadvantage in a Skilled Trade Labor Market” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Lindsay is a sociologist by training whose research interests lie at the intersection of criminal justice, punishment, racial inequality, and public policy. Professor Lindsay’s work examines racism and the criminalization of deviance, incarceration, prison reentry, collateral consequences of criminal justice contact, and drug policy and use. Professor Lindsay’s scholarship has been published in outlets such as Criminology and Social Problems and received numerous awards from the American Society of Criminology, the American Sociological Association, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Professor Lindsay’s work has been funded and supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, and the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, among other organizations.

Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri: Social determinants of cognitive aging & inequalities: Challenges and Opportunities
2022-11-04 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 4, 2022, Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri (Epidemiology) will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Bio: Dr. Zeki Al Hazzouri is an epidemiologist and the overarching goal of her research program is to improve the understanding of how social and cardiovascular factors experienced across the life-course influence cognitive function, Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s related dementias (AD/ADRD). An important theme of her work focuses on poverty and financial well-being as social determinants of cognitive aging. Another theme of her work also focuses on causal inference methodologies that address challenges in ADRD research including, inverse probability weighting, trial emulation, and regression discontinuity designs. Her work leverages innovative methods such as pooling, cross-walking and harmonization of existing epidemiological cohorts to address life course ADRD research questions.

Krystale Littlejohn: Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics
2022-11-11 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 11, 2022, Krystale Littlejohn will present “Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Littlejohn‘s work examines race, gender, and reproduction. She is particularly interested in investigating how cultural categories shape behavior in intimate relationships and examining the consequences of these behaviors for health outcomes. Her work has been published in Demography, Gender & Society, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior, among other outlets. Her research has been supported by funding from the ASA Minority Fellowship Program, the American Association of University Women, and the Society of Family Planning. She is currently working on a book project, Just Get on the Pill: Gender, Compulsory Birth Control, and Reproductive Injustice (under contract with University of California Press), where she uses in-depth interviews with young women to examine how taken-for-granted ideas about gender structure inequality in pregnancy prevention.

Bonnie Shook-Sa: Survey Sampling Methods in HIV Research
2022-11-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 18, 2022, Bonnie Shook-Sa will present “Survey Sampling Methods in HIV Research” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2022-2023 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Bonnie Shook-Sa is an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at UNC. She is affiliated with the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC) and is a participating faculty member with the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Biostatistics Core. She has over 12 years of experience in collaborative public health research and statistical methods development. Her research interests include survey sampling and causal inference methods. Her collaborative research has spanned numerous areas of public health, including infectious disease (HIV and SARS-CoV-2), victimization and criminal justice, drug use, and tobacco consumption.

Book launch: "A Dream Defaulted: The Student Loan Crisis Among Black Borrowers"
2022-11-29 17:30 - 19:30 | Washington Duke Inn, Duke University, 3001 Cameron Blvd, Durham, 27705, United States

Jessica Halliday Hardie: Best Laid Plans: Women Coming of Age in Uncertain Times
2023-01-13 12:00 - 13:00 | 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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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.

Udry Lecture: Steve Ruggles, “It’s None of Their Damn Business”: Privacy and Disclosure Control in the U.S. Census, 1790-2022
2023-03-30 15:00 - 16:30 | Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library, 200 South Road, Chapel Hill, NC, 27515, United States
The 2023 J. Richard Udry Distinguished Lecture will be presented by Steven Ruggles, the Regents Professor of History and Director of the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota.
Title: “It’s None of Their Damn Business”: Privacy and Disclosure Control in the U.S. Census, 1790-2022
Abstract:
The U.S. Census Bureau is implementing new methods of disclosure control that will reduce the usability of publicly accessible population data. To understand the rationale for the cutbacks in access to data, we must grapple with the history of privacy concerns surrounding the census and the government’s response to those concerns. This paper traces the history of privacy and disclosure control since the first U.S. census in 1790. We argue that controlling public access to census information has never been an effective response to public concerns about government intrusion. We conclude that the Census Bureau should weigh the costs of curtailing access to reliable data against realistic measures of the benefit of new approaches to disclosure control.

Biography from PAA: “Steve is best known as the creator of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), the world’s largest population database, spanning two centuries and 100 countries. Steve’s lifelong addiction to data began early. By age eight, he was coding data for a penny a case for his parents, economists Richard and Nancy Ruggles. Leaving home brought no escape; as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Steve became interested in historical demography and joined the Center for Demography and Ecology. Steve went on to graduate school in history at the University of Pennsylvania, where Sam Preston showed up bearing the brand-new 1900 Public Use Sample that became the centerpiece of Steve’s dissertation (as well as of his moving article, “Confessions of a Micro-Simulator”). After receiving his Ph.D.in 1984, Steve returned to Wisconsin as a postdoc. While at Penn and Wisconsin, Steve observed planning and production for two major historical census projects directed by Preston and Hal Winsborough. This exposure to like-minded data enthusiasts sealed his scholarly fate.
When Steve arrived at the University of Minnesota, he partnered with Russell Menard to obtain funding from NIH and NSF to create samples of the 1850 and 1880 censuses. By 1991, public use microdata files existed for eight U.S. census years between 1880 and 1980, potentially allowing consistent analysis of long-run demographic change. Steve was awarded a grant to make a compatible version of all these datasets and the IPUMS was born. To make IPUMS possible, Steve designed several significant innovations, including the first metadata-based data integration system (1991) and the first interactive website for large scale data dissemination (1995).
In 1999, when the U.S. census series was nearly complete, Steve and his colleagues expanded IPUMS beyond U.S. census data to include international microdata and data from the Current Population Survey. IPUMS data integration technology underlies other large-scale projects, including the Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) and the Integrated Demographic and Health Series (IDHS). In 2001, Steve and John Adams received an NSF grant to create the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS), a comprehensive source for aggregate statistical data and geographic data describing spatial characteristics of the U.S. population from 1790 to the present. Steve and collaborators are now working on Terra Populus, which integrates global data on population and the environment over the past two centuries. The newest project is “Big Microdata,” which aims to develop complete microdata for all U.S. censuses between 1790 and 1940, covering 700 million persons. He is also working with the Census Bureau to convert Census Bureau internal microdata to IPUMS format and to link the historical census data to modern censuses, surveys, and administrative records.
Steve’s contributions to demography are not solely the data infrastructure that underlies so much scholarship in our field. His own research focuses on historical family demography, especially on long-run changes in intergenerational co-residence, single parenthood, divorce, and marriage. In a book and more than 30 articles, he has analyzed the impact of demographic and economic change on family composition, marriage, and divorce. He has consistently taken positions at odds with the conventional wisdom. For example, Steve argued that Early Modern England did not have a nuclear family system, that family reconstitutions studies are systematically biased by migration censoring, and that divorce risk in the U.S. has risen substantially since 1980. Departing from cultural interpretations of family change, Steve argues that families in developed countries were transformed by industrialization and the rise of wage labor, first among men and then among women.
Steve is also the founding Director of the Minnesota Population Center. The Center was established in 2000 with 20 members and a small grant from the University of Minnesota. Shortly thereafter, Steve submitted a successful proposal for a R24 center grant from NICHD. MPC has grown to serve 95 population researchers from 10 colleges and 26 departments at the University of Minnesota—and more than 70,000 researchers worldwide who use MPC data.
Steve has been recognized for his service to the field and his academic accomplishments by American Sociological Association, Social Science History Association, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the PAA. Steve was honored to serve as the President of the PAA in 2015.”

Sarah Burgard: Remembrance of things past? Measuring life course exposures as determinants of health
2023-04-21 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
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.

Désiré Kédagni
2023-09-08 12:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
Faculty Fellow Désiré Kédagni will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2023-2024 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Kedagni’s interests span a broad range of topics with an important focus on microeconometrics (identification issues: theory and applications), causal inference, policy evaluation, and development economics. A distinctive feature of his recent econometric work is that it is motivated and tailored to answer specific real-world empirical questions. He has been collaborating with non-econometricians in order to make use of the newly-developed econometric methods to help answer their relevant research questions. His main applications are in the fields of labor economics and economics of education. His recent research has been published in Biometrika, Journal of Econometrics, The Econometrics Journal, Journal of Applied Econometrics and European Economic Review.
