International Colloquium Club
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Dr. Claudia Buss is a Professor at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Charité, University Medicine, Berlin, Germany and an Adjunct Professor at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She received her PhD in Psychobiology at the University of Trier and conducted her doctoral and postdoctoral studies focusing on early life stress and brain development at McGill University and the University of California Irvine.
Her research addresses the effects of stress and stress-related biological (maternal-placental-fetal endocrine, immune, genetic) and behavioral (nutrition, physical activity, smoking/drug use) processes during human pregnancy on fetal brain development as well as other health-related infant outcomes like body composition, metabolic function and obesity risk. Her recent work has specifically advanced our understanding of the relationship between maternal-placental-fetal stress biology and fetal/infant neurodevelopmental trajectories by applying multimodal neuroimaging techniques. She is the PI of several NIH-funded and European based studies that focus on the mechanisms underlying developmental programming of brain development and the transmission of maternal preconceptual adversity as well as stress during pregnancy to her child.
Racial disparities in adversity during childhood
Dr. Harnett is Director of the Neurobiology of Affective and Traumatic Experiences Laboratory at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He will be presenting his paper, "Racial Disparities in Adversity During Childhood and the False Appearance of Race-Related Differences in Brain Structure."
Dr. Harnett’s research is focused on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate susceptibility to trauma and stress related disorders. His lab uses multimodal neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and behavioral assessments to probe cognitive-affective function in individuals exposed to trauma to understand an individual’s potential to later develop posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, he investigates how structural inequities throughout development produce differing neural responses to trauma and how these factors may reinforce racial disparities in mental health. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to develop predictive and preventative neuroscience-based techniques to reduce the prevalence of trauma and stress-related disorders. Dr. Harnett’s research has been funded by the Ford Foundation, NINDS, NIMH, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation among others. His research has been published in several journals including The American Journal of Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychopharmacology, and NeuroImage.
The relationship between adverse childhood experiences, neighborhood environment, and obesity
Our guest speaker is Krista Schroeder, assistant professor of nursing at Temple University College of Public Health . She will be speaking on, “Disentangling the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, neighborhood environment, and obesity: A geospatial approach”
Neighborhood environment factors such as greenspace, crime, and healthcare access may influence both ACEs and obesity risk, yet research on ACEs-obesity associations rarely examines neighborhood environment. As a result, existing literature about ACEs-obesity associations lacks information about the role of neighborhood context, hindering efforts to interrupt ACEs-obesity associations for the 60% of Americans who have experienced ACEs. This presentation will discuss our recent work aiming to disentangle ACEs-obesity-neighborhood associations using geospatial methods, rich spatial data, advanced analytic approaches, and robust data from the Philadelphia ACE Survey. The overarching goal of this program of research is to provide a foundation for future studies focused on development and testing of upstream, place-based interventions and policies to reduce obesity for millions of Americans affected by ACEs.
Dr. Krista Schroeder is a nurse scientist whose research examines how trauma and socio-environmental adversities influence obesity risk. Her methodological expertise includes using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analytic approaches to understand the influence of place on health and harnessing large datasets to understand effects of complex multi-level determinants of health. Her ongoing NICHD-funded research uses innovative analytic methods and rich spatial data to examine the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), obesity, and neighborhood environment. Dr. Schroeder’s research is complemented by a program of pedagogy and mentorship that advances students’ abilities to address upstream causes of morbidity and increases students’ quantitative skills for understanding population health needs. Dr. Schroeder completed a BSN at Bloomsburg University, a PhD and NIH T32 pre-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University, and a NIH T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Temple University College of Public Health. Collectively, her clinical experience directly informs her passion for her work, including her former practice as a critical care nurse informing her passion for health promotion and her current practice as a sexual assault nurse examiner informing her passion for improving well-being of populations affected by trauma and adversity.
Prevention of child sexual abuse in the UK
November 7, 2022 - Our speaker for the first gathering is Pat Branigan, Assistant Director for Scotland's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He will be speaking on, "Prevention of child sexual abuse in the UK – 'Together for childhood' a 10 year placed based approach."
This session explores how Scotland's NSPCC is creating a wide range of local partnerships between social care, schools, health, voluntary groups, alongside the police, and local communities themselves. The ultimate goal is to achieve systems change, and the development of preventative frameworks to support agencies and organisations to work together to prevent abuse.
Pat Branigan was the theme lead for Child Sexual Abuse at the NSPCC and is now Assistant Director for Together for Childhood – A place based sexual abuse prevention initiative. He’s an medical anthropologist with a background in public health. At the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine he led research into sensitive sexual health topics including HIV and illicit substance use and was instrumental in shaping the ‘Talk to Frank’ drug awareness programme. More recently in central government he led on co-production of cross-departmental responses to 0-2 year olds (Sure Start and Early Intervention). Pat now leads the NSPCC’s response to child sexual abuse with a focus on prevention and harmful sexual behaviour displayed by children and young people. Pat has recently been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to look at public health approaches to tackling sexual abuse in the UK.
