Bonnie Kerker, MPH, PhD

I am an associate professor of population health and child and adolescent psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and the director of Together Growing Strong, a community-partnered initiative that aims to enhance the health, wellbeing, and development of young children and their families in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. With training in health policy and epidemiology, I study initiatives and policies that prevent and mitigate the impact of adverse experiences among young children and families, particularly in immigrant and low-resourced communities.

I am committed to centering community voice in my research, which aims to promote health equity in racially and ethnically marginalized populations using community-centered, mixed methods approaches grounded in prevention science. My specific research expertise is in the mental health of women during the perinatal (prenatal and postpartum) period. My work includes:

• the examination of the roles of emotional, informational, and instrumental support in perinatal mental health and well-being;
• the adaptation, implementation and testing of perinatal mental health preventive interventions for culturally diverse populations in healthcare and other settings (e.g., homeless shelters);
• the integration of culturally responsive, evidence-based preventive interventions and supports for immigrant families of young children across healthcare and education systems;
• the design and implementation of prospective longitudinal studies of pregnant women to examine long-term maternal and child health outcomes, as well as facilitators and barriers to healthy child development; and
• the examination of policies that support women in ways that have meaningful effects on their health and that of their families.

Prior to coming to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, I was an Assistant Commissioner at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In that role, I oversaw a research portfolio that implemented and analyzed community surveys and matched large datasets to directly inform health policy at the city level, including issues around tobacco control, chronic disease prevention, homelessness and incarceration.