CHEAR - Core Faculty
Core faculty members of the CHEAR Unit include representatives from the Schools of Business, Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Social Work. This multidisciplinary Unit meets once a month to evaluate children's policies and programs in our community, in our state, and throughout the nation.
Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H. (saclark@umich.edu)
Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., is currently Associate Director for Research in the Division of General Pediatrics and Research Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Ms. Clark has more than ten years of experience in both quantitative and qualitative pediatric health services research studies. Trained in health behavior/health education at the University of North Carolina, Ms. Clark contributes expertise in instrument design, behavior change theory, and qualitative research methods. Her previous work has included studies of the attitudes and practices of immunization providers, evaluation of Medicaid policies and programs, and evaluation of changes in health care delivery.
Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H. (gfreed@umich.edu)
Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H., is The Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health Delivery, Director of the Division of General Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He is also the Director of the Children's Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Freed has over 15 years of experience in children's health services research and has been the principal investigator on a number of state-, federal-, and foundation-funded grants. He has published extensively on physician behavior and interspecialty variation in the provision of preventive services to children, child health policy, immunization policy, vaccine financing and the medical workforce.
Dr. Freed currently serves as President of the Society for Pediatric Research, the largest research society in the field of child health. He also serves on several national committees including the Department of Health and Human Services as Chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee and is a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies as well as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the American Board of Pediatrics and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Jan Hu, D.D.S., Ph.D. (janhu@umich.edu)
Jan Hu's research focuses on the regulation of tooth formation and genetic mutations associated with dental structures. Her clinical interests are in the area of craniofacial anomalies and special patient care among pediatric dental patients.
In addition to her research and teaching, Hu holds several positions in professional societies, including the Science Affairs Committee of the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry, and on two editorial boards, the Journal of Dental Research and the Journal of Pediatric Dentistry. Hu is board certified by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and is a member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon, the national dental honor society.
Paula M. Lantz, Ph.D., M.S. (plantz@umich.edu)
Dr. Paula M. Lantz, a social epidemiologist, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy; she is also a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research. Prior positions include working as an epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Division of Health and as a senior researcher for Marshfield Clinic. She is the director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lantz's main areas of research interest are policy issues in women's health and child health, clinical preventive services (such as cancer screening and prenatal care), and social inequalities in health.
Dr. Lantz's research interests include Longitudinal national study of social disparities in health, population-based study of breast cancer treatment, and the study of policy issues in the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
Paula Lantz's vita
Carol Loveland-Cherry, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. (loveland@umich.edu)
Dr. Carol Loveland-Cherry is a Professor and Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of Nursing. Dr. Loveland-Cherry's research interests include intervention research - family interventions and community-based nursing interventions derived from theoretical empirical bases. Her current research includes antecedents of adolescent alcohol use and abuse, altering family norms regarding adolescent alcohol use/misuse, and school and family interventions to decrease adolescent substance use.
Bridget M. McCormack, J.D. (bridgetm@umich.edu)
Bridget M. McCormack, who is the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs for the School of Law, is also a clinical professor with the Michigan Clinical Law Program teaching a criminal defense clinic, a domestic violence clinic, and a pediatric advocacy clinic. Before joining the faculty, McCormack was a Robert M. Cover Fellow at Yale Law School. As a Cover Fellow, she taught and supervised students in the Community Legal Services Clinic and the Prison Litigation Clinic. McCormack earned her law degree from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden scholar, and her B.A., with honors in political science and philosophy, from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. She has worked as a staff attorney with the Office of the Appellate Defender and she was a senior trial attorney with the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society, both in New York City. McCormack has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and wrote, with Andrea Lyon, the Criminal Defense Motions Book for the State Appellate Defender’s Office. McCormack’s current clinical practice, as well as her research and scholarship, focuses on criminal charging issues, specifically the issues surrounding women charged with crimes against their partners and issues surrounding terrorism prosecutions.
Varhsa Mehta, Pharm.D., F.C.C.P. (varsham@umich.edu)
Dr. Varsha Mehta is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmacy in the Department of Clinical Sciences for the College of Pharmacy. Her research interests include Drug administration methods (IV) in pediatric patients; pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics of drugs (sedatives, steroids, vasopressors, analgesics, anesthetics, antimicrobials, neuromuscular blockers) in pediatric patients of varying ages, disease states and during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; developmental pharmacology.
Dana M. Muir, M.B.A. (dmuir@umich.edu)
As a Professor at the Michigan Ross School of Business, Dana Muir's research interests are in employment law and securities law, and employee benefits. Professor Muir's employee benefits research has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. She was a delegate to the first and second White House/Congressional National Summit on Retirement Savings and has served as a Congressional Fellow. She served from 2002-2004 as a member of the Department of Labor's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans where she chaired the working group on Defined Benefit Plan Funding and Discount Rate Issues. She is also a member of the Board of The Aerospace Corporation. Her book, A Manager's Guide to Employment Law: Protecting Your Company and Yourself, was published by Jossey-Bass in April 2003 as part of the Business School's Pressing Problems series. Prior to joining the Business School, Professor Muir practiced law at national law firms based in Chicago and Detroit. She also held a number of human resource positions at Chrysler Corporation.
Mary C. Ruffolo, Ph.D. (mruffolo@umich.edu)
As an Associate Professor for the School of Social Work, Mary Ruffolo's primary research interests focus on the intersection of mental health interventions with children, adolescents, and their families and the mental health services system. She is interested in engaging in the multidisciplinary examination of factors that enhance or limit the effectiveness of intervention services for children and adolescents with mental health disturbances in "real world" settings. Ruffolo is particularly interested in examining outcomes of care and the development of new interventions to improve treatment delivery across settings for children and youth. Ruffolo is completing a study funded by NIMH focusing on children and youth with serious emotional disturbances and their families in public mental health settings. The study has developed and is examining the effectiveness of a multiple family group, psycho-educational intervention program for parents of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances (SED) who are enrolled in the New York State Children and Youth Intensive Case Management Program (CYICM) located in two counties. Her publications are in the area of mental health services for children and adolescents and advocacy/empowerment practice in developing university/agency partnerships.Other areas of research/scholarly interest: Mental Health; Children and Families.
Anne N. Schroth, J.D. (schroth@umich.edu)
Anne N. Schroth, a clinical professor of law, has over thirteen years of legal experience in civil litigation and has been teaching at the University of Michigan Law School since 1997. Throughout her time at the Law School, she has been the principal faculty liaison to the Michigan Poverty Law Program, Michigan’s legal services state supported office that is jointly operated by the Law School and Legal Services of South Central Michigan. She has taught in a variety of clinical settings, including the Poverty Law Clinic, the Civil Clinic, and the Domestic Violence Clinic. Most recently, she has developed a new clinical course, the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, in which students work in a medical/legal collaboration with pediatric health-care providers to develop interdisciplinary strategies to improve the health outcomes of low-income children. Professor Schroth has also taught several non-clinical courses at the Law School, including the Domestic Violence Litigation Seminar and Access to Justice.
Prior to joining the Law School faculty, Professor Schroth was a staff attorney with AYUDA in Washington, D.C., representing immigrant and refugee victims of domestic violence. She earned her B.A. at the University of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa. Schroth served as a student attorney and executive director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau while earning her J.D. at Harvard Law School, cum laude. She then clerked for the Hon. Mary Johnson Lowe of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York and practiced as an associate with Bernabei & Katz in Washington, D.C.
Jack Wheeler, Ph.D. (jackwhee@umich.edu)
Jack Wheeler, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Management and Policy in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he served as chair from 1991-1997. During his term as chair, the Department of Health Management and Policy was continuosly recognized as the leading program in health administration education in the country. He is also Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases in the University of Michigan Medical School and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research.
Professor Wheeler's research interests focus on optimal investment (capital expenditure) decisions by the health care firm, optimal financing decisions by the health care firm, and health care payment policy. His current projects include research to support the redesign of Medicare's end-stage renal disease payment program and to understand and improve health care quality incentives (P4P).
Marc A. Zimmerman, Ph.D. (marcz@umich.edu)
Dr. Zimmerman's research focuses on adolescent health and resiliency and empowerment theory. His work on adolescent health examines how positive factors in adolescent's lives help them overcome risks they face. His research includes analysis of adolescent resiliency for risks associated with alcohol and drug use, violent behavior, precocious sexual behavior, and school failure. He is also studying developmental transitions and longitudinal models of change. Dr. Zimmerman's work on empowerment theory includes measurement and analysis of psychological and community empowerment. The research includes both longitudinal interview studies and community intervention research.
Dr. Zimmerman is the Director of the CDC funded Prevention Research Center of Michigan. He is also the Principal Investigator for the CDC funded Youth Violence Prevention Center. Dr. Zimmerman is the Editor of Health Education & Behavior and is a member of the editorial board for Health Education Research.
Dr. Zimmerman's primary research interests have included application and development of empowerment theory and the study of adolescent health and resiliency. His research has consistently focused on individual and community risk and promotive factors, resiliency, and community-based research methods. He is the principal investigator for the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS). FAS is a National Institute on Drug Abuse funded longitudinal study designed to investigate resiliency among adolescents. The study is currently examining resiliency in the transition to adulthood. The protective factors studied include participation in church, school, and community organizations, social support and influences, psychological well being, and racial identity.
Dr. Zimmerman directs the Prevention Research Center of Michigan (PRC/MI). This CDC-funded center includes both policy and community-based initiatives and projects. The center includes partnerships with the State Department of Community Health and other policy organizations (e.g., Michigan Association of Local Public Health, Michigan League of Human Services, Michigan Health and Hospital Association, and Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health) and community organizations including the Genesee County Health Department, Greater Flint Health Coalition, Neighborhood Roundtable, Flint Odyssey House, and Faith Access to Community Economic Development. Center projects included a variety of health issues such as maternal and child health, adolescent health and nutrition and physical activity. The PRC also conducts a biennial survey of social determinants of health.
Dr. Zimmerman also directs the Youth Violence Prevention Center (YVPC). YVPC is a CDC-funded center that involves partnerships with Flint Community Schools, police, family court, Mott Children's Health Center and several other community organizations. The Center includes pilot projects, surveillance, and training. The goal of the Center is to develop an interdisciplinary scientific infrastructure in collaboration with community partners to address the many complex facets of youth violence and its consequences.
He has published on a wide variety of topics including adolescent violence, sexual behavior, and substance abuse; HIV/AIDS prevention; and empowerment theory. Selected representative publications follow.