The Academic Minute for 2018.01.08-01.12

Academic Minute from 1.08 – 1.12

Monday, January 8th
Julia Seng – University of Michigan
Pregnancy and PTSD
Dr. Seng’s research focuses on the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on women’s health and childbearing. Her projects approach this topic from a variety of perspectives. She used qualitative, participatory action research to understand women’s experiences and to inform intervention development. Epidemiological analyses have established that PTSD is associated with pregnancy complications and worse physical health across the lifespan for women. Clinical studies currently are examining neuroendocrine and genetic pathways that link PTSD to preterm birth, lower birth weight, and pregnancy complications. Clinical trial testing of a psychoeducation program for women with abuse-related PTSD, known as the “Survivor Moms’ Companion” are underway in the US and Australia.

In addition to studying PTSD, Dr. Seng is working with collaborators in a new trajectory focusing on studies of oxytocin in relation to health outcomes in women.

Tuesday, January 9th
Marieke van Heugten – University at Buffalo
How Accents at Home Affect Baby Language
Dr. van Heugten is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and the director of the Buffalo Babylab. She completed her B.A. and M.Sc. at Radboud University in the Netherlands before moving to Canada where she received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She then held a postdoctoral position at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. In August 2015 she started her position at the University at Buffalo.

Wednesday, January 10th
Naja Ferjan Ramirez – University of Washington
Building Bilingual Brains
Naja Ferjan Ramirez, Ph. D., is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington. Naja earned her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Brown University and her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego. Her research broadly focuses on understanding language acquisition in populations from various linguistic backgrounds. Naja conducts brain (magnetoencephalography) and intervention studies with babies who are simultaneously acquiring two languages. She is also a mother of two young children who are learning three languages (Slovene, Spanish, and English).

Thursday, January 11th
Emilia Simeonova – Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Health Benefits of a Congestion Tax
Emilia Simeonova, PhD (Economics from Columbia University in 2008) joined Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in 2013 from Tufts University. Between 2011-2012 she was a research fellow at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. Emilia’s research interests in the economics of health care delivery, patient adherence to therapy and the interaction between physicians and patients, racial disparities in health outcomes, the long-term effects of shocks to children’s health and the intergenerational transmission of health.  Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and the Danish Academy of Sciences.

Friday, January 12th
Katherine Rafferty – Iowa State University
Doctor Parent Communication
Katherine Rafferty is a lecturer at Iowa State University and teaches a variety of communication courses to undergraduate students. Katherine is the Director of the Family Health Communication Research Lab, where she works with a team of undergraduate students to study family health communication issues, specifically how patients and their family members cope with illness and end-of-life care. Katherine earned her PhD in Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.