Isar P. Godreau Santiago, PhD and Mariluz Franco-Ortiz, PhD: Applications of Skin Color Scales to the Study of Racial Inequality
2024-12-11 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Applications of Skin Color Scales to the Study of Racial Inequality
Key Takeaways: In this brief presentation we discuss the benefits and challenges of utilizing skin color scales to study racial inequality. We specifically consider the contributions of studies that have applied this methodology to study racial inequalities among Latinxs in the US and in Puerto Rico with a focus on health outcomes. Definitions of key concepts such as “race” , “racism” and “colorism” will be provided before considering their health impacts. Opportunities for addressing methodological challenges and information gaps associated with the use of skin color scales in surveys will also be discussed.

Isar P. Godreau Santiago, PhD
Investigator at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies
University of Puerto Rico- Cayey
Speaker Biography:
Isar P. Godreau Santiago obtained her PhD in cultural anthropologist the University of California in 1999 after graduating from the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras. She works at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey where she has directed various institution-wide level research initiatives and her own research projects on race and anti-black racism in Puerto Rico since 2003. She has published on hair, racial terminology, the folklorization of blackness, census racial categories and the combined effects of racism and colonialism in Puerto Rican schools, and socail studies textbooks. She is the main author of Arrancando mitos de raíz: guía para la enseñanza antirracista de la herencia africana en Puerto Rico (2013) and Scripts of Blackness: Race, Cultural Nationalism and US Colonialism in Puerto Rico (2015, winner of the Frank Bonilla best book award).

Mariluz Franco-Ortiz, PhD
Investigator at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies
University of Puerto Rico- Cayey
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Mariluz Franco-Ortiz is currently Co-PI of the Visualizing Afro-dignity Project and Researcher of the Mellon Program titled: Invigorating Scholarly Communities at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Puerto Rico, Cayey. Dr. Franco-Ortiz completed a Ph.D. in Social-Community Psychology at UPR Río Piedras and has 25+ years of experience implementing best training practices in student and faculty development programs in projects related to education, psychosocial research, racism, research integrity, and youth violence prevention. She has also led community-based projects promoting gender, racial, and social justice through her enthusiastic commitment with Colectivo ilé, a grassroots organization that fosters leadership with women through anti-racist education.
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Courtney K. Blackwell, PhD, EdM and Richard Gershon, PhD: An Introduction to the NIH Baby Toolbox
2025-01-08 13:00 - 14:00
An Introduction to the NIH Baby Toolbox
Key Takeaways: This presentation provides an overview of the NIH Infant and Toddler Toolbox, or “Baby Toolbox,” a new neuropsychological, cognitive, motor, and social assessment battery for ages 1-42 months. Descriptions and video examples of the new Baby Toolbox direct and observational tasks will be shown, including novel gaze-tracking technology that enables assessment of the youngest infants. Information on norming and validation activities will be described. The presentation will also review Baby Toolbox administration in ECHO, including how the Baby Toolbox fits into the broader suite of NIH Toolbox instruments for lifespan coherent assessment.

Courtney K. Blackwell, PhD, EdM
Associate Professor
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
Speaker Biography:
Courtney K. Blackwell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Blackwell has expertise in the development, validation, and implementation of developmentally sensitive, lifespan coherent person-reported outcomes (PROs) and performance-based assessments.

Richard Gershon, PhD
Professor and Division Chief of Outcome and Measurement Science
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
Speaker Biography:
Richard Gershon, PhD, is Professor and Division Chief of Outcome and Measurement Science in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. His career has focused on developing modern assessment tools and delivering assessment results to clinicians.
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Nathalie Maitre, MD, PhD: Stakeholder Engagement in Pediatric Disability Research: Why and How to do it
2025-02-12 13:00 - 14:00
Stakeholder Engagement in Pediatric Disability Research: Why and How to do it
Key Takeaways: To study child health, researchers must also study child disability. Research to improve child outcomes necessarily considers those with disabilities early in their developmental trajectories, to identify modifiable factors and drive interventions that promote health throughout the lifespan. However, this can be challenging to implement. In this presentation, we demonstrate how quantitative and qualitative research can inform the design, outcomes, recruitment, and retention of children with disabilities and their families, with a special focus on often-overlooked physical disabilities. The example of the ECHO 301 project will be highlighted.

Nathalie Maitre, MD, PhD
Director of Early Development & Cerebral Palsy Research,
Emory University School of Medicine
Speaker Biography:
Nathalie Maitre, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatrician and Neonatologist at Children’s, and Director of Early Development and Cerebral Palsy Research. Dr. Maitre’s research spans from neuroscience to clinical trials to implementation. Examples range from studying the brain of a single child to global health and transforming healthcare systems throughout the world. Her NIH-funded neuroscience research looks at the mechanisms of how the brain recovers after injury and what interventions she can design: by leveraging and developing new technologies and by involving parents in interventions. These approaches all leverage the neuroplasticity of the baby brain to help infants recover function and have more healthy and happy developmental trajectories into childhood. It’s important for Dr. Maitre’s research to have families as stakeholders to design studies, choose outcomes, and to voice what matters to them when participating in interventions.
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Linda Kahn, MD, PhD: Opportunities and challenges for subfecundity research in ECHO
2025-04-09 13:00 - 14:00
Opportunities and challenges for subfecundity research in ECHO
Key Takeaways: Since the advent of assisted reproduction, there have been questions about potential impacts on child health, with neurodevelopment being a particular focus of concern. One of the biggest challenges for research in this field has been confounding by indication, i.e., the difficulty of disaggregating the effect of the treatment itself from the underlying subfecundity that warranted it. In ECHO, we now have a suite of harmonized variables available that may help us to do just that. In this talk, Dr. Kahn will introduce these variables and describe an analysis in progress that is examining associations between subfecundity and child neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Linda, Kahn, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Population Health
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Kahn received her undergraduate degree from Yale and master’s in English from Columbia before embarking on a career as a book editor focusing on health and women’s studies. After 20 years, she returned to Columbia for her MPH in Population and Family Health and PhD in Epidemiology. She joined the Division of Environmental Pediatrics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine as a postdoc in 2017 and in 2021 was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health. Her research examines intersection between environmental chemical exposure and reproductive health and development.
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Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, PhD: What is DNA methylation and how can it help us address ECHO scientific priorities and improve child health?
2025-05-14 13:00 - 14:00
What is DNA methylation and how can it help us address ECHO scientific priorities and improve child health?
Key Takeaways:  DNA methylation is a molecular modification of DNA that is instrumental in regulating several essential cellular functions. For example, it provides a mechanism for cellular differentiation during fetal development, it controls gene expression, and it silences one X-chromosome in females, among other functions. Alterations in DNA methylation have been associated with a wide range of health outcomes in adults and children and have also been associated with environmental exposures. Thus, it may provide a biologic mechanism for some environmental effects on child health. In addition to providing potential biologic/mechanistic insights, there is evidence that it could serve as a useful biomarker of exposures and/or health outcomes. This presentation will provide a brief introduction to DNA methylation, a framework for how it can be examined in ECHO to address scientific priorities, highlight a few exemplar findings in ECHO to date, and summarize opportunities and challenges for future studies.

Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Ladd-Acosta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a joint appointment in mental health. Her research focuses on developing and applying epigenomic and genomic epidemiology approaches to improve health, with a particular concentration on child and neurodevelopmental health outcomes. Her findings have been recognized with a “best original article” award by Environmental Research and results reported in multiple publications have been declared as top 20 advances in autism research by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC).
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Diana Pacyga, M.S., PhD: Does adherence to U.S. dietary guidelines during pregnancy reduce exposure to over 50 contemporary and understudied chemicals?
2025-06-11 13:00 - 14:00
Does adherence to U.S. dietary guidelines during pregnancy reduce exposure to over 50 contemporary and understudied chemicals?
Key Takeaways: Diet is an important source of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which are linked to adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Aside from consuming fresh foods or restricting processed/packaged food intake, there are no comprehensive recommendations for reducing dietary EDC exposures during pregnancy. Current U.S. dietary guidelines for pregnancy, which promote healthy diets to support fetal development, do not factor in the presence of EDCs in foods. In this ECHO-wide study, we aimed to evaluate whether better adherence to dietary guidelines reduces exposure to over 50 contemporary and understudied EDCs, including phthalates and their replacements, pesticides, phenols, organophosphate esters, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Diana Pacyga, M.S., PhD
T32 Postdoctoral Trainee, Department of Epidemiology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Speaker Biography:
Diana Pacyga is a T32 Postdoctoral Trainee in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current research focuses on two areas: investigating diet as a source of chemical exposure and evaluating the neurodevelopmental consequences of prenatal and early life chemical exposures.
She previously earned a dual Ph.D. in Human Nutrition and Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University, where she was part of a multidisciplinary program spanning the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Environmental and Integrative Toxicological Sciences program.
Diana is trained in environmental, molecular, nutritional, and perinatal epidemiology, and has experience studying how chemical and non-chemical stressors during critical life stages—like pregnancy, infancy, and midlife—can affect maternal and child health.
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Dr. Maxwell Mansolf - Predictors of Child Eating and Parent Feeding in the ECHO Cohort
2025-08-13 13:00 - 14:00
Predictors of Child Eating and Parent Feeding in the ECHO Cohort
Key Takeaways: Dr. Mansolf will present findings from a study using data from over 3,500 children in the ECHO cohort to examine the complex relationships between child eating behaviors and parental feeding practices. Using machine learning approaches such as random forests and regression trees, the research identified key predictors of these behaviors, revealing both independent and interdependent patterns. Results showed that caregiver and child age were the strongest predictors, followed by caregiver stress, child BMI, and social support. These findings highlight potential intervention opportunities and provide new insights into the multifaceted nature of family food dynamics and their implications for child nutritional health.

Maxwell Mansolf, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
Co-PI, ECHO Measurement Core
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Maxwell Mansolf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on psychometric methods and child health outcomes, with expertise in classical test theory, item response theory, and computerized adaptive testing. Dr. Mansolf serves as a data scientist on large-scale longitudinal studies, including the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort, where he manages and analyzes harmonized data from 69 cohorts to advance understanding of child health and development. His recent work includes developing assessment tools such as the NIH Baby Toolbox neurodevelopmental assessment system and contributing to psychometric research published in venues including Multivariate Behavioral Research and the Handbook of Structural Equation Modeling. He is proficient in R statistical programming and recently published the AlignLV package to CRAN. Dr. Mansolf is also author of an upcoming Cambridge University Press textbook on MATLAB programming for non-technical audiences.
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Chang Liu, Ph.D: Early Childhood BMI Trajectories and Weight Status Lability: Leveraging ECHO's Longitudinal Data to Identify Critical Developmental Patterns
2025-09-10 13:00 - 14:00
Early Childhood BMI Trajectories and Weight Status Lability: Leveraging ECHO’s Longitudinal Data to Identify Critical Developmental Patterns
Key Takeaways: Dr. Liu will present findings from three studies using data from thousands of children in the ECHO cohort to examine early childhood BMI development and its implications for future health risks.

Distinct BMI Trajectory Patterns: About 10% of children show rapid increases in BMI starting at age 3.5, reaching an average BMI exceeding the 99th percentile by age 9.
BMI Z-score Lability: This new risk indicator highlights factors like breastfeeding and neighborhood resources that influence weight status fluctuations.
Developmental outcomes: The third study explored how early BMI z-score lability patterns predict developmental outcomes in middle childhood.

These findings provide new insights into early childhood development and potential intervention opportunities.

Chang Liu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology
Washington State University
Co-I of ECHO Cohorts 12101/12102/12103
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Chang Liu, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Washington State University studies how developmental processes and mechanisms shape resilience vs. maladjustment in children and mothers. Her work integrates multiple levels of analysis, including prenatal adversities, genetic influences, and early parental. This has led to three lines of social-emotional development research focused on children’s regulation vs. maladjustment: characterizing dynamic change and how parents and children co-regulate emotions, the relationship between genes, pre- and post- natal environment influences, and the impact of different contexts of development on risk and resilience in children and mothers. Recently she began examining childhood obesity, using innovative longitudinal methodologies and concepts like body mass index (BMI) z-score lability.
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Christine Loftus, MS, MPH, Ph.D: Where there’s smoke… there’s action? What ECHO can do to protect children from wildfire smoke
2025-10-08 13:00 - 14:00
Where there’s smoke… there’s action? What ECHO can do to protect children from wildfire smoke
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Key Takeaways:
Wildfire smoke exposure is a growing public health crisis, causing significant harm to children nationwide. In 2025 alone, an estimated 12,000 ECHO participants have experienced at least one serious smoke event. Dr. Loftus’s presentation will describe wildfire smoke research in progress across the ECHO Program, including a new study collecting time-sensitive data after smoke events, aiming to characterize short-term health impacts and parents’ efforts to reduce child smoke exposure. Dr. Loftus will also discuss potential future research directions for the program, focusing on solution-oriented studies that leverage key strengths of the ECHO Cohort.

Christine Loftus, MS, MPH, Ph.D
Clinical Associate Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Washington
Project Director within Cohort 306
Award PI: ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF)
Co-chair: ECHO Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke Interest Group
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Christine Loftus is a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research program focuses on environmental exposures and child health, including through applications of advanced study designs and statistical methods, community-engaged methods for remote and rural settings, and intervention research. She served as the science director of the PATHWAYS Consortium in ECHO Cycle 1 and is currently the project director of a new ECHO site in the Yakima Valley, recruiting new pregnancies. She’s the co-chair of the ECHO Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke Interest Group and is principal investigator of an ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund award in progress, The Development and Evaluation of a Wildfire Smoke Protocol for Rapid Response (WiSPRR).
Keywords: Wildfires, smoke, interventions, disaster response
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Ricardo Bertolla, PhD: Paternal effects on child health and development: where are we now, where do we need to be?
2025-11-12 13:00 - 14:00
Paternal effects on child health and development: where are we now, where do we need to be?
Key Takeaways: For this talk, Dr. Bertolla will focus on what is currently known about paternal effects on obstetric outcomes that could impact child health and development, and on direct paternal effects that have been shown to impact child health and development. Dr. Bertolla will focus on both animal and human studies. He will also present information of these outcomes in infertility cohorts, where paternal effects have been particularly important in child health and development.

Ricardo Bertolla, PhD
Associate Professor
C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Wayne State University, School of Medicine
Speaker Biography: Dr. Bertolla is an Associate Professor at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University. His research is focused on cellular and molecular mechanisms of male infertility.
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Allan C. Just, PhD: Air pollution and temperature as spatial factors impacting child health
2025-12-10 13:00 - 14:00
Air pollution and temperature as spatial factors impacting child health
Key Takeaways: For this talk, Dr. Just explores how air pollution and temperature act as spatial factors impacting child health, with a focus on advanced exposure modeling using satellite data and machine learning. It highlights unique opportunities within the ECHO program to build spatiotemporal exposure models, integrate diverse data sources, and improve the accuracy of environmental health studies. Dr. Just also discusses technical challenges, model comparisons, and the importance of analyzing short-term exposures and humidity’s role in heat-related health outcomes.

Allan C. Just, PhD
Nazareth-Ferguson Family University Associate Professor
of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
Speaker Biography: Allan C. Just, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society at Brown University. Dr. Just specializes in environmental exposure modeling and epidemiology, leveraging satellite data and earth observations to enhance exposure assessment for large health registries and cohort studies. Dr. Just is recognized for advancing methodologies in air pollution and temperature modeling to support child health research.
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Jean Kerver, PhD, MSc, RD: Incorporating Early Life Micronutrient Status in ECHO studies of Neurodevelopment
2026-01-14 13:00 - 14:00
Incorporating Early Life Micronutrient Status in ECHO studies of Neurodevelopment
Key Takeaways:
It is known that early life nutrition, including pregnancy diet and infant feeding, is critical for brain development, yet the impact of the suboptimal micronutrient status of the US population is unknown. In this presentation, Dr. Kerver discusses micronutrient status, highlighting biomarkers rather than dietary intake, and its impact on neurodevelopment. She reviews often overlooked interactions between nutrients and environmental toxicants. Dr. Kerver suggests areas where ECHO can better leverage existing knowledge about nutrition’s impact on neurodevelopment. She advocates for greater integration of these interactions in ECHO analyses.

Jean Kerver, PhD, MSc, RD
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
College of Human Medicine, Traverse City Campus
Michigan State University
Contact Principal Investigator of ECHO Award 129
Speaker Biography:
Jean Kerver, PhD, MSC, RD, is the contact Principal Investigator of ECHO Award 129 at Michigan State University. An epidemiologist and registered dietitian, Dr. Kerver investigates perinatal causes of childhood disorders and develops strategies to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors among families experiencing poverty or other challenges. Based in Traverse City, Dr. Kerver supports MSU’s College of Human Medicine rural research network initiative. Her primary research focuses on micronutrients and neurodevelopment, with an emphasis on biomarkers and exposures.
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Courtney K Blackwell, PhD, MEd: The kids are(n’t) alright: The role of social media in youth mental health
2026-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
The kids are(n’t) alright: The role of social media in youth mental health
Key Takeaways: The parallel rise of youth mental health problems and social media use has led to speculations that the latter is a key contributor to the former. The US Surgeon General’s Advisory bolstered such speculations with a recent report detailing the potential harmful effects of social media use on youth mental health. However, others suggest engaging in social media can have positive psychological influences by increasing social connectedness and providing opportunities for creative self-expression and identity exploration. Dr. Blackwell will explore this duality by reviewing what we know about youth social media use and mental health outcomes, highlighting recent and on-going ECHO studies on this topic. She will also provide insight into the ECHO media use data more broadly to inspire future work leveraging the ECHO Cohort.

Courtney K Blackwell, PhD, MEd
she/her/hers
Associate Professor
Department of Medical Social Sciences (Outcome and Measurement Science)
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
MPI, ECHO Measurement Core
Biography:
Courtney Blackwell, PhD, MEd, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the MPI of the ECHO Measurement Core and has expertise in the development, validation, and implementation of patient-reported outcome measures and population health surveys for use across the lifespan, general and clinical populations, and health domains. Her research on pediatric mental health and well-being emphasizes promotive and protective factors of children’s positive psychological health. With a background in communication studies and the effects of digital media on child development, Dr. Blackwell has spent the past 10 years collaborating with such organizations as Common Sense Media, Sesame Workshop, PBS, Google, and Code.org on national surveys of children’s media use, the development and evaluation of educational media products, and investigations of the effects of digital media on children’s learning and development. She is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Northwestern University Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences (“DevSci”) and the Northwestern Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being.
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Alicia Peterson, PhD: Early-Life PFAS Exposure and Child Health: Evidence from the NIH ECHO Cohort
2026-03-11 13:00 - 14:00
Early Life PFAS Exposure and Child Health: Evidence from the NIH ECHO Cohort
Key Takeaways: The widespread presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment has raised concerns about their potential impacts on child health. This presentation will explore the current state of knowledge by reviewing PFAS exposure and child health research within the ECHO Program. The talk will highlight the PFAS data available through ECHO, summarize key findings from ECHO-supported studies, and examine evidence linking prenatal and early life PFAS exposure to a range of health outcomes. It will also discuss the strengths of the ECHO platform, identify remaining research gaps, and consider future directions to advance understanding and prevention of PFAS-related health impacts in children.

Alicia Peterson, PhD
Staff Scientist
Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Division of Research
Women’s and Children’s Health Section

Biography:
Alicia Peterson, PhD, is a Staff Scientist in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. A perinatal and environmental epidemiologist by training, her research focuses on sensitive windows of exposure across the preconception, prenatal, and early-life periods. She examines environmental contaminants and metabolic exposures that may influence in utero programming and shape later growth, metabolic health, and pubertal development.
Dr. Peterson has been involved in ECHO since 2017, initially completing her dissertation within the Cycle 1 MADRES Cohort. She now serves as a Co-Investigator in the Kaiser Permanente pregnancy and pediatric cohorts. She previously served as Co-Chair of the ECHO PFAS Special Interest Group and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Chemical and Physical Exposures Working Group. She is also the recipient of an ECHO Cycle 2, Round 1 Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF) award examining early-life air pollution exposure and pubertal development.
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Elissa Z Faro, PhD: Participant Experience in Longitudinal Research
2026-04-08 13:00 - 14:00
Participant Experience in Longitudinal Research
Key Takeaways:
During this presentation, Dr. Faro will provide an overview of the current research on participant experience in longitudinal research. She will also present the analysis and results of the “Characterizing Participant Experience in Longitudinal Research: How and Why Engagement Matters in the ECHO Program” research. Positive experiences in research are multidimensional. Respectful, family-centered interpersonal relationships with staff, as well as practical aspects such as efficient scheduling, manageable survey lengths, and clear communication, are equally crucial for maintaining engagement and satisfaction. Finally, Dr. Faro will reflect on how the current participant engagement work in ECHO Cycle 2 reflects and attends to these principles.

Elissa Z Faro, PhD
Manager, Associate Member
Center for Discovery & Innovation @ Hackensack Meridian Health
Associate Professor | Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
Biography:
Dr. Elissa Zoe Faro is a medical anthropologist and implementation scientist at the Center for Discovery and Innovation, where her research focuses on improving healthcare delivery and outcomes for underserved populations in the U.S. and globally. She applies ethnographic and mixed‑methods research to understand contextual factors influencing real‑world practice and to bridge the gap between evidence‑based interventions and their implementation in clinical, public health, and community settings. Her work spans diverse areas, including pediatric emergency care, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health implementation, and health equity. In addition to her Participant Engagement and Evaluation work on ECHO, Dr. Faro currently serves as the contact Principal Investigator for an NIMH‑funded R01 three-variable hybrid implementation-effectiveness-context trial and as a Senior Implementation Scientist for the NIH IMPROVE initiative, both focused on improving maternal health outcomes. She has held academic appointments at institutions including the University of Iowa, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dartmouth College, and Brown University.
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Linda Adair, PhD: ECHO OIF Accomplishments
2026-05-13 13:00 - 14:00
ECHO OIF Update
Key Takeaways:
In this presentation, Dr. Adair will provide an overview of the ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF) and the accomplishments of OIF awardees through 7 cycles of funding. The session will include brief presentations by former OIF recipients that highlight their contributions to ECHO and provide insights into how the OIF has benefitted their career development.

Linda Adair, PhD
CC MPI
Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Biography:
Dr. Adair is a biological anthropologist and nutrition epidemiologist with a research focus child nutrition and growth, and the developmental origins of adult disease. She leads a birth cohort study in the Philippines that has followed children and their mothers for nearly 40 years. She has been a member of the faculty in Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC for the past 37 years. As MPI of the ECHO Coordinating Center, she has played key roles in the OIF grant solicitations, reviews, and implementation since it began on in ECHO Cycle 1.
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