Announcements

Celebrating Innovation: Meet the OIF Round 3 Principal Investigators

Posted on by Jodi Snare

The ECHO Coordinating Center is pleased to announce that the NIH ECHO Program Office selected 12 investigators to receive research funding through the ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF).

The OIF is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators who propose projects that introduce new research, tools, and technologies to the ECHO Program. Each OIF investigator is sponsored by an ECHO award.

For this OIF round, NIH requested proposals focusing on the following areas:

  • ECHO Cycle 2 Scientific Priorities defined by the ECHO Steering Committee
    • Aim for discoveries that are directly related to preventing diseases and promoting health
    • Identify how and why children’s health changes over time, which could lead to early detection of diseases
    • Identify protective or risk factors that change how early environmental or genetic factors influence child health
    • Identify periods of development most sensitive to specific beneficial or harmful exposures
    • Rapidly design studies in response to unexpected events or health innovations that affect child health
  • The Science of Operations, specifically:
    • Refinement of measures
    • Return of individual research results
    • Recruitment and retention strategies

Congratulations to the awardees! See below for the full list of awardees and their research proposal titles.

  1. Yaray Agosto, PhD, MPH – Santos Award, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
    Identifying Disability Type, Functional Limitations, and Obesity Risk Among ECHO Children
  2. Jessica Arizaga, PhD – Coordinating Center Award, University of California, San Francisco
    Redefining Early Childhood ACEs in the ECHO Cohort
  3. Catrina Calub, PhD – Hertz-Picciotto Award, University of California, Davis
    Identifying Greenspace Features that Promote Adolescent Mental Health and Cognition
  4. Catherine Cohen, PhD, RDN – Dabelea Award, University of Colorado Denver
    Added Sugar Exposures in Early Life in Relation to Childhood Obesity Risk
  5. Heather Guetterman, MS, PhD, RD – Aguiar Award, Michigan State University
    Improving the Characterization of Prenatal Intake of Supplemental Micronutrients for Optimal Birth Outcomes
  6. Yu Ni, PhD – Karr Award, San Diego State University Research Foundation
    Chronic Transportation Noise Exposure and Blood Pressure in ECHO Children
  7. Miriam Novack, PhD – Measurement Core Award, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
    From Lab to Livingroom: Remote Adaptation of the NIH Baby Toolbox for Infant Assessment
  8. Adam Pedersen, PhD – Kerver Award, Wayne State University
    Nontargeted Bioinformatics Approaches to Identify Associations Between Emerging Pollutants and Maternal Metabolic Pathways and Early Life Growth
  9. Mengyuan Ren, PhD – Dunlop Award, Emory University
    Prenatal Air Pollution and Newborn Neurodevelopment across ECHO cohorts (PANDA-ECHO)
  10. Ana Rosen Vollmar, PhD – Ferrara Award, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Division of Research
    Wildfire Smoke Exposure and Child Cardiovascular Health
  11. David Sosnowski, PhD – Lyall Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
    Interaction Between Genetic Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Childhood Adversity Predicting Childhood Behavior Outcomes
  12. Danielle Stevens, PhD – Hunt Award, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Corrected Age in Practice: Identifying At-Risk Preterm Children Through Multivariate Growth Modeling

ECHO Researchers Showcase Child Health Research at 2026 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting

Posted on by Kayla Korzekwinski

Twenty IDeA States Pediatric Network (ISPCTN) researchers and an ECHO Cohort researcher will showcase ECHO’s work at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting taking place in Boston, MA on April 24 – 27, 2026.

The annual PAS Meeting connects thousands of pediatric researchers, clinicians, and educators from around the world to advance scientific discovery and promote innovation in child and adolescent health. This year’s PAS Meeting will feature oral abstracts, posters, workshops, scholarly sessions, special interest group meetings, and more.

By participating in this meeting, ISPCTN and ECHO Cohort researchers will connect with and learn from leaders in pediatric health, as well as share the work and results of the ECHO Program.

ISPCTN-related Sessions:

Twenty ISPCTN researchers will present across all three days of the PAS 2026 Meeting. In total, there will be 26 ISPCTN-related sessions. These sessions span a variety of types, including posters, oral abstracts, workshops, courses, hot topic symposia, and clubs.

View a complete listing of ISPCTN-related sessions at the PAS 2026 Meeting.

ECHO Cohort-related Session:

TOP 75 – Wildfire-specific Fine Particulate Matter and Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy in the U.S. ECHO Cohort (Poster Session)
Saturday, April 25, 2026, at 3:30pm – 5:45pm ET (Convention Center, Halls A-B)
Session: Environmental Health Trainee Ongoing Projects
Meredith Haag, MD, MPH, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at Oregon Health & Science University

ECHO Symposium 2025: Slides and Full Videocast Now Available

Posted on by Jodi Snare

On September 15, 2025, the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program hosted its inaugural ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and online. This free, one-day event brought together more than 1,000 researchers, clinicians, policymakers, advocates, community leaders, and families to explore how early environmental factors influence child health—and how to translate science into meaningful action.

The symposium featured a keynote address by Dr. Susan Kressly, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics; opening remarks by Dr. Matt Gillman, Director of the NIH ECHO Program, and former ECHO Cohort participant Jadine Benjamin; and a closing address by Dr. Michael Warren, Chief Medical and Health Officer of the March of Dimes.

Across three sessions—Chemical Exposures, Social and Neighborhood Factors, and Community Experiences—speakers highlighted research and perspectives on topics such as replacement chemicals and child health, environmental exposures in pregnancy, childhood trauma and toxic stress, neighborhood opportunity, media use, Indigenous community health, rural pediatric research, and parent experiences in pediatric studies.

Watch the videocast and view the slides
Missed the event or want to revisit a session? The full videocast and presentation slides are now available:

Celebrating Innovation: Meet the OIF Round 2 Principal Investigators

Posted on by Jodi Snare

The ECHO Coordinating Center is pleased to announce that the NIH ECHO Program Office selected 12 investigators to receive research funding through the ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF).

The OIF is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators who propose projects that introduce new research, tools, and technologies to the ECHO Program. Each OIF investigator is sponsored by an ECHO award.

For this OIF round, NIH requested proposals focusing on the following areas:

  • ECHO Cycle 2 Scientific Priorities defined by the ECHO Steering Committee
  • The Science of Operations, specifically:
    • Return of individual research results
    • Refinement of measures

Congratulations to the awardees! See below for the full list of awardees and their research proposal titles.

  1. Jyoti Angal, PhD – Elliott Award, Avera McKennan
    Examining the Impact of Returning Individual Developmental Screening Results on Opportunities for Early Intervention Access among Children in the ECHO Program
  2. Rana Chehab, PhD, MPH, RD – Ferrara Award, Kaiser Permanente Northern California
    Neighborhood Park Environment and Child Growth Trajectories and Obesity Risk: Opportunities to Identify Sensitive Windows of Exposure and Effect Modifiers
  3. Lauren Eaves, PhD, IBCLC – O’Shea Award, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
    G-computation for Public Health Interventions: An ECHO-wide Case Study of Lead and Preterm Birth
  4. Jason Giles, PhD – Dabelea Award, University of Colorado Denver
    Implementation of a Phenome-Wide Association Study for Identifying Childhood Asthma Pleiotropy in ECHO 
  5. Lauren Hoskovec, PhD – Dabelea Award, Colorado State University
    Identifying Windows of Susceptibility to Wildfire Smoke Exposure: Growth Trajectories and Mitigation 
  6. Meghan JaKa, PhD – Nguyen Award, Health Partners Institute
    Describing Longitudinal Patterns in Positive Health During Childhood and Correlated Assets Using a Strength-based Research Paradigm
  7. McKenzie K. Jancsura, PhD, RN – Slaughter Award, Ohio State University
    Exploring Pregnancy Outcomes’ Influence on Childhood Cardiovascular Health (EPIC-Heart Health)
  8. Kelsey Magee, PhD – Hipwell Award, University of Pittsburgh
    Psychosocial Stress Before and During Pregnancy: Implications for Child Neurodevelopment
  9. Daniel Mork, PhD – Wright Award, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    ECHO-wide Precision Environmental Health Analyses of Air Pollution Exposure and Birth Outcomes  
  10. Allison Sherris, PhD – Karr Award, University of Washington
    Establishing an ECHO-wide Sibling Cohort
  11. Ashley Song PhD, MPH – Lyall Award, Johns Hopkins University
    Patterns of Social Determinants of Health and Environmental Exposures in Child Cognitive and Behavioral Development
  12. Rachel Tomlinson, PhD – Coordinating Center Award, University of California, San Francisco
    Precision in Childhood Executive Functioning Measurement: Advancing Efficiency of Evidence Accumulation (EEA) for Developmental Insights

Register Now for the NIH ECHO Symposium “Translating Science to Action”

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Please join the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program for the inaugural ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action on Sept. 15, 2025, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and online. This free, one-day event will bring together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, advocates, community leaders, and more to explore how early environmental factors influence child health—and how we can translate science into meaningful action.

Agenda highlights include:

  • Keynote Address by Dr. Susan Kressly, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Opening remarks by Dr. Matt Gillman, Director of the NIH ECHO Program and by former ECHO Cohort Participant, Jadine Benjamin
  • Closing address by Dr. Michael Warren, Chief Medical and Health Officer of the March of Dimes
  • Three dynamic sessions featuring expert presentations, panel discussions, and opportunities for audience Q&A.

Whether you join us in person or online, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in Q&As, connect with thought leaders, and help advance solutions to improve the health of children for generations to come!

If you haven’t yet, register now to reserve your spot!

Here’s a closer look at what’s planned:

Session 1: Chemical Exposures
Session Chair
Kristie Trousdale, Children’s Environmental Health NetworkSafer Alternatives? Investigating Replacement Chemicals and Child Health
Dr. Jessie Buckley, University of North Carolina

Exposure to Phthalates in Pregnancy and Childhood: Evidence, Knowledge Gaps, and Opportunities
Dr. Leo Trasande, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

From Clinic to Community: Translating Environmental Health Research into Pregnancy Care
Dr. Blair Wylie, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Session 2: Social and Neighborhood Factors
Session Chair
Dr. Nicole Bush, University of California, San FranciscoUnderstanding Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress to Enhance Child Health
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Former California Surgeon General

Associations of Neighborhood Opportunity and Vulnerability with Child Health Outcomes
Dr. Izzuddin Aris, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School

Influences of Media Use on Child Health and Development
Dr. Jenny Radesky, University of Michigan

Session 3: Community Experiences
Session Chair
Dr. Lee Beers, Children’s National HospitalBehind the Data: A Parent’s Voice in Pediatric Research
Cassondra Perez, ECHO Cohort Parent Participant

Indigenous Community Health
Dr. Johnnye Lewis, University of New Mexico

Rural Health Research in the ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN)
Dr. Leslie Young, University of Vermont

From Flint to Rx Kids: Translating Crisis into a Bold Prescription for Healthier Futures
Dr. Mona Hanna, Michigan State University

ECHO to Host First Symposium Focused on Translating Science to Action

Posted on by Jodi Snare

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program will hold its inaugural ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action on September 15, 2025, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and online.

This free-to-attend, one-day interdisciplinary event seeks to translate child health research into action by informing intervention programs, health policies, and clinical practice. Experts from multiple disciplines will explore factors that influence child health and address opportunities to prevent childhood disorders and enhance well-being. Join representatives of professional societies, advocacy groups, federal partners, Congress, state and local governments, research participants, and others.

Three sequential sessions will cover Chemical and Exposures, Social and Neighborhood Factors, and Community Experiences. Each session will feature a chair, presenters, and a discussant to kick off a panel discussion following presentations. Both in-person and online attendees will have the chance to ask questions.

Register today to join in-person or online.

NIH Study Suggests Behavioral and Emotional Challenges More Common in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed higher levels of emotional and behavioral problems, including depression, anxiety, and ADHD, compared to their peers without ASD, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

Key Takeaways:

  • Children with ASD had higher scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)—a questionnaire that helps identify emotional and behavioral challenges in children and adolescents—showing they may experience more emotional and behavioral challenges overall.
  • Higher CBCL scores were linked to the likelihood of receiving an ASD diagnosis, particularly for children scoring in the top 30%.
  • Among children with ASD, girls experienced significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to boys, with age-related differences in symptom severity.
  • Autism-related traits measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) were associated with higher CBCL scores, suggesting that children with more autism traits may face additional emotional and behavioral challenges.

These findings highlight the importance of monitoring and addressing emotional and behavioral health in children with ASD to better inform early interventions. To learn more, access the study online.

Read the research summary.

Year in Review 2024

Posted on by Jodi Snare

A newly published feature, Year in Review 2024, reflects how the ECHO Cohort Consortium has continued to enhance child health for generations to come.

Through the ECHO Cohort, a collaborative approach to gathering information from study participants across dozens of research awards, many of the nation’s leading researchers are working together to examine a broad range of early environmental influences—including socioeconomic status, family support, biological factors, nutrition, and physical and chemical exposures.

Currently, the NIH is funding 45 ECHO Cohort awards at academic medical centers across the country where investigators and their teams completed activation of 77 study sites where researchers enroll participants and collect data. These sites are located across 30 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. ECHO Cohort study sites are identified in blue on the map.

In the past year, these research teams have enrolled nearly 6,000 pregnancies on the way to the program’s goal of 30,000 new pregnant participants. When those babies are born, they join the 30,000 existing child participants in the ECHO Cohort.

In 2024, ECHO research teams completed numerous analyses of the data collected in the ECHO Cohort, drawing important conclusions about how environmental influences impact child health outcomes. These insights were shared in 48 research articles published by peer-reviewed science and public health journals over the year.

The consortium’s work in 2024—from activating study sites to enrolling participants to publishing research analyses—represents another year of growth, collaboration, and learning.

Celebrating Innovation: Meet the OIF Round 1 Principal Investigators

Posted on by Jodi Snare

The ECHO Coordinating Center is pleased to announce that the NIH ECHO Program Office has selected 11 investigators to receive research funding through the ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF).

The OIF is an NIH-funded grant mechanism to support early career investigators on projects that can introduce new research, tools, and technologies in the ECHO Program. Each OIF investigator is sponsored by an ECHO award. In ECHO Cohort Cycle 2, NIH expects to provide OIF funding through five rounds.

For this first round, NIH requested proposals focusing on the following areas:

  • The Science of Operations
    • Return of individual research results
    • Filling remaining gaps in remote assessment
  • Scientific Areas
    • Early origins of health disparities
    • Health trajectories
    • Resilience
    • Application of modern causal inference methods

Congratulations to the awardees! See below for the full list of awardees and their research proposal titles:

  1. Sylvia Badon, PhD – Hedderson Award, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research
    • Estimating Adiposity: Validity of Skinfold Thickness as a Measure of Body Fat Mass Across Childhood
  2. Helen Chin, PhD, MPH – Hunt Award, George Mason University
    • Prenatal and Minipubertal Exposure to Air Pollution and Pubertal Timing
  3. Whitney Cowell, PhD, MPH – Trasande Award, New York University School of Medicine
    • Expanding Report Back to Diverse Communities
  4. Emily Ho, PhD – Measurement Core Award, Northwestern University
    • Validating Remote Assessment of Neurocognitive Outcomes in English and Spanish Children 3 and up Using the V3 NIH Toolbox Participant Examiner App
  5. Christine Loftus, PhD, MS, MPH – Karr Award, University of Washington
    • Development of a Rapid Response Protocol for Acute Wildfire Smoke Exposure
  6. Siyuan Ma, MS, PhD – Hartert Award, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
    • The Role of Airway “Sociobiome” in Neighborhood-Related Childhood Asthma Burden
  7. Jiwon Oh, MPH, PhD – Schmidt Award, University of California, Davis
    • Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure, Maternal Inflammation, and Child Neurodevelopment: Influences of Interpersonal and Neighborhood Socioecological Factors
  8. Alicia Peterson, PhD – Ferrara Award, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research
    • Air Pollution Exposure and Pubertal Development: Identifying Possible Early Origins of Health Disparities
  9. Alexandra Sullivan, PhD – Zhao Award, University of California San Francisco
    • Advancing Equity-Centered Remote Assessment of Parenting and Child Self-Regulation: Tailoring and Validating Brief Remote Parent-Child Observations and Coding in ECHO
  10. Mingyu Zhang, PhD, MHS – Oken Award, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
    • Ambient Temperature During Pregnancy and the Cardiovascular Health of Pregnant Women and Their Children
  11. Zhaozhong Zhu, ScD – Camargo Award, Massachusetts General Hospital
    • Causal Relationship Between Methylation Quantitative Trait Loci (meQTL) and Childhood Asthma

ECHO Presentations at Upcoming Conferences

Posted on by Jodi Snare

From posters and symposiums to oral presentations and flash talks, 19 Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program teams will present at three upcoming conferences.

ISEE: International Society for Environmental Epidemiology: August 25-28, 2024

The International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Conference will be held in Santiago, Chile Aug. 25-28. This year’s conference addresses how the scientific community faces current health environmental justice, and epidemiological challenges, including empirical evidence, methodological approaches, ethical and theoretical developments.

Title Primary Author(s) Type Status
Cord Blood Metabolic Signatures of In-utero Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Exposure: A Multicohort Study

 

 Leda Chatzi Abstract Accepted as presentation
Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Risk of Autism: Findings from ECHO Cohorts

 

 Akhgar Ghassabian Abstract Accepted as oral presentation
Do Area- and Individual-level Sociodemographic Characteristics Modify the Association of Air Pollution with Incident Asthma in the ECHO Program?

 

 Antonella Zanobetti, Rima Habre Abstract Accepted as oral presentation
Patterns of Pediatric Chronic Health Outcomes in the United States: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program

 

 Drew B. Day; presented by Christine Loftus) Abstract Accepted as flash talk
Cross-sectional Associations Between Prenatal Maternal Per-/Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Bioactive Lipids in Three Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohorts

 

 Himal Suthar; Max Aung Abstract Accepted as flash talk
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Prenatal Environmental Phenol and Paraben Exposures in the ECHO Cohorts

 

 Michael Bloom Abstract Accepted as a flash talk
Wildfire-specific Fine Particulate Matter and Adverse Birth Outcomes in the U.S. ECHO-wide Cohort

 

 Allison R. Sherris Abstract Accepted for oral presentation
Drought Exposure Assessment During Pregnancy in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort

 

 Amii M. Kress Abstract Accepted for oral poster
Drought Exposure During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort

 

 Amii M. Kress Abstract Accepted for oral poster
Changes in Prenatal Urinary Concentrations of Triclocarban and Triclosan Following U.S. FDA Ban in 2016

 

 Adaeze C. Wosu Abstract Accepted for flash
oral presentation

 

WCE: World Congress of Epidemiology: September 24-27, 2024

The 23rd World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE) will take place in Cape Town, South Africa Sept. 24-27. This year’s theme is “Epidemiology and complexity: challenges and responses.” WCE brings together epidemiologists and public health experts with the goal of promoting dialogue, the interchange of ideas, and scientific research.

Title Primary Author(s) Type Status
Associations Between the Community Food Environment and Fruit and Vegetable and Sugar-sweetened Beverage Consumption in Children in the ECHO Study

 

 Christine Hockett, Lacey McCormack Abstract Accepted for oral poster

 

ISES: International Society of Exposure Science: October 20-24, 2024

International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) 2024 Annual Meeting will be held Oct. 20-24 in Montreal, Canada. The meeting brings together communities from academia, government and the non-profile sector to discuss issues around exposure science, epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessments to explore this year’s theme, “Exposures that Impact Health in Vulnerable Populations.”

Title Primary Author(s) Type Status
Exposures to Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in the United States and Associated Determinants and Developmental Outcomes in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort

 

 Lesliam Quiros-Alcala, Jiwon Oh Symposium Accepted, proposals participating: EC0381, EC0409, EC0646, EC0681, EC0723, EC0716
Widespread Exposure to Legacy and Emerging Contaminants During Pregnancy and Associations with Birth Weight and Gestational Length: The ECHO Program

 

 Jessie P. Buckley Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium. Accepted as presentation
Dietary Predictors of Exposure to Legacy and Emerging Chemicals in Pregnancy: The ECHO Program

 

 Diana Pacyga Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium. Accepted as presentation
Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphate Ester Flame Retardants and Early Life Growth Trajectories of Child Weight and Adiposity

 

 Anne P. Starling Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium
Accepted as presentation
Prenatal Exposure to Phthalates and Alternative Plasticizers and Behavioral Outcomes in Early Childhood: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program

 

 Jiwon Oh Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium. Accepted as oral presentation
Prenatal Pesticide Exposure and Airway Outcomes in Infancy and Early Childhood: An ECHO-wide Analysis

 

 Allison R. Sherris Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium. Accepted as an oral presentation
Investigating Disparities in Toxic Chemical Exposures with Neurodevelopmental Effects

 

 Teresa Herrera Abstract Part of EC0726 symposium. Accepted as a poster
Exposures to Contemporary and Emerging Chemicals Among Young Children in the United States Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program

 

 Jiwon Oh Abstract Accepted as poster