Fellow Kathleen Mullan Harris named Visiting Scientist in RTI University Scholars Program

Fellow Kathleen Mullan Harris will be a Visiting Scientist in the 2020-21 RTI University Scholars Program.

Craig Hill, PhD, Senior Vice President, Social, Statistical, and Environmental Sciences shares, “Dr. Harris and I have — both personally and organizationally — a long-standing and solid relationship dating back to the late 1990s, when RTI began the data collection for the ground-breaking National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), for which Dr. Harris was the Principal Investigator. Over those many years, I — and RTI — have gained an appreciation for Dr. Harris’ creative and careful scholarship. Now, we’re able to match Dr. Harris with a team of RTI scientists, who, as a transdisciplinary team, will apply a multi-omics lens to that rich and robust longitudinal data. Because we collected biological samples from the AddHealth cohort (in addition to questionnaire data), this new work can examine health outcomes disparities among the cohort by studying the biomarkers of environmental exposures. We look forward to novel approaches — and findings — from this new collaboration.” Harris studies social inequality and health by seeking to understand how disadvantaged environments and social experiences influence physical well-being across the life course.