New MPH Program Director Named
The Center for Public Health Initiatives, the School of Nursing, and the
School of Medicine are quite pleased to announce that Dr. Jennifer
Pinto-Martin has been named as the new Director of the Masters in Public
Health Program at the University of Pennsylvania effective May 1, 2007,
succeeding Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika who has led the program from its
inception through a successful process of accreditation last year.
Dr. Pinto-Martin is the Viola MacInnes/ Independence Chair in Nursing,
Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Medicine's Department of
Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Senior Scholar in the Center for
Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She received her baccalaureate
degree in Human Biology from Stanford University in 1978. Her MPH degree
and her PhD in Epidemiology were awarded from the University of
California, Berkeley, where she was the recipient of the Silverstein
Fellowship in Epidemiology. This was followed by a Fellowship in the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where she did her doctoral dissertation
research on the epidemiology of ovarian cancer. She came to Columbia
University in 1984 as a Research Scientist and was later appointed as a
Research Assistant Professor of Public Health/Epidemiology. Jennifer
moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 as a Research Assistant
Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. She was appointed to the
Standing Faculty in the School of Nursing in 1995, promoted to Associate
Professor with tenure in 1998 and to Full Professor in 2005 with a
secondary appointment in the School of Medicine. Dr. Pinto-Martin was
awarded the Viola MacInnes/Independence endowed Chair in Nursing in
2006.
Dr. Pinto-Martin has received national and international recognition for
her work on the epidemiology and long-term consequences of neonatal
brain injury in premature infants. The public health significance of Dr.
Pinto-Martin's work is evidenced by the record of two decades of nearly
continuous NIH funding for the Neonatal Brain Hemorrhage (NBH) Study, a
longitudinal study of neonatal brain injury in a low birthweight cohort.
More recently, she has shifted her primary research focus to the
epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and she is currently the
Director and Principal Investigator of the Pennsylvania Center for
Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology
(PA-CADDRE), one of six such Centers across the nation funded by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the etiology of ASD.
In addition, she is currently the Principal Investigator of a study
funded by NIH to assess the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder in
the Neonatal Braib Hemorrhage cohort, thereby bringing her two major
research interests together in one project.
Other areas of her research include early identification of Autism
Spectrum Disorder. PA-CADDRE has launched a statewide training program
for providers and early childhood educators on the appropriate screening
for ASD. In addition, she is working with the International Clinical
Epidemiology Network on a study on the prevalence of ASD and other
childhood disabilities in India. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed
articles on her work. Dr. Pinto-Martin serves on the scientific review
committee for the National Institutes of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke
and is a consultant to the NIH Inter-agency Autism Coordinating
Committee. She is a member of the American Public Health Association and
the past President of the Society for Pediatric Epidemiologic Research.
She serves on the editorial board for Pediatric and Perinatal
Epidemiology and the American Journal of Public Health. She was elected
this year to the Board of the International Society for Epidemiologic
Research.
Dr. Pinto-Martin has played an active role in promoting research within
the School of Nursing and at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a
member and former Chair of both the Committee on Research in the School
of Nursing and the University Council Committee on Research. She
currently serves as the Chair of the Faculty Grievance Commission and is
a member of the University's institute of Strategic Threat Analysis and
Research. Dr. Pinto-Martin has been involved in the MPH program at the
University of Pennsylvania as a member of the Steering Committee since
it began in 2002 and as the Chair of the Admissions Committee for the
past two years. She teaches a very popular core course in Epidemiology
and has been a mentor and advisor for numerous students in the program.
Dr. Pinto-Martin is honored to take over the leadership from the
founding Director, Dr. Kumanyika. Dr. Pinto-Martin envisions significant
growth and development in the program and looks forward to bringing the
Penn community, both internal and external, into the process of shaping
the future of public health at Penn.
Her current contact information is:
Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Ph.D.
Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor
University of Pennsylvania
School of Nursing and School of Medicine
Director, Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and
Epidemiology (CADDRE) 420 Guardian Drive, Room 436 Philadelphia, PA
19104 215-898-4726 pinto@nursing.upenn.edu