Outgoing Executive Committee Members. Thank you for your service to the Society!
Penny Howards
Helen Chin
Kristin Rappazzo
Sara Stephens
Welcoming in the new SPER Executive Committee Members for 2025!
SPER’s Executive Committee is comprised of elected officers and includes a President, a President-Elect, an Immediate Past-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and four Members-at-Large, a Trainee Representative, and an International Representative. The President of the Society shall be the Chairperson of the Executive Committee. All officers of the Society must be members and are elected by majority vote of the members voting by mail or e-mail ballot.
Dawn Misra
President
Dawn P. Misra, PhD is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Her research endeavors to contribute to a fuller understanding of the pathways which lead to optimal perinatal health and close the gap in disparities. Dr. Misra’s current work investigates how racism acts as fundamental cause of adverse maternal and infant outcomes for Black families.
More• MS, PhD, Epidemiology, Columbia University, 1993
• MHS, Maternal and Child Health, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1989
• BA, Johns Hopkins University, 1988
CONTACT
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Email: misradaw@msu.edu
Sarka Lisonkova
President-Elect
Sarka Lisonkova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and at the Children’s and Women’s Hospital of British Columbia in Vancouver. She also holds an adjunct appointment at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.
More- PhD, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, Canada (2009)
- MSc, Epidemiology, State University of New York at Albany (1999)
- MD, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic (1994)
CONTACT
Michael Smith Scholar in Health Research
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
And School of Population and Public Health
University of British Columbia
Children’s and Women’s Health Centre
C403-4480 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V4, Canada
Telephone: 604.875.2345×4793
Email: slisonkova@bcchr.ca
*insert personal info here*
Edwina Yeung
Past President
Edwina Yeung is a Senior Investigator in the Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Population Health Research in the Division of Intramural Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is a perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist. Her primary research interests are in the developmental origins of health and disease.
More
- PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2008
- ScM, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2005
- BA, Johns Hopkins University, 2003
CONTACT
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Address: 6710B Rockledge Dr, MSC 7004
Bethesda, MD 20817
Phone: 301-435-6921
Email: edwina.yeung@nih.gov
Stefania Papatheodorou
Secretary
Stefania Papatheodorou, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health and a trained obstetrician and gynecologist. She previously served as a lecturer in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
More- MD/PhD University of loannina, Greece
- MSc in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard Cyprus Program, Limassol, Cyprus
CONTACT
Rutgers School of Public Health
Address: 683 Hoes Ln W, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Phone: 781.228.0004
Email: sp2599@sph.rutgers.edu
Candice Johnson
Treasurer
Candice Johnson is an assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Michigan State University. She studies how work-related exposures and policies affect the health of workers and their families. Her research interests include employment during pregnancy, access to paid leave, and occupational health inequities.
- PhD, Emory University, 2012
- MSc, University of Ottawa, 2008
CONTACT
Michigan State university
Address: 909 Wilson Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
Email: candice@msu.edu
Stefanie Hinkle
Member at Large
Stefanie N. Hinkle is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania. Stefanie is a nutritional and perinatal epidemiologist. Her research focuses on the nutritional status of women and birthing people with the goal of reducing the risk for adverse birth outcomes and advancing their long-term health.
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PhD, Emory University 2012
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BS, University of California at Santa Cruz 2006
CONTACT
University of Pennsylvania
Address: 423 Guardian Drive
812 Blockley Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19140
Phone: (215) 746-4218
Email: Stefanie.Hinkle@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Kari Weber
Member at Large
Kari Weber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Public Health. She is a perinatal epidemiologist with a focus on environmental health. Her current research focuses on environmental exposures during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes.
- PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2016
- MHS, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2011
- BA, University of Southern California, 2007
CONTACT
University of Arkansas
4301 W. Markham St. #820
Little Rock, AR 72205
Phone: 501-526-6694
Email: kweber@uams.edu
Andrew Williams
Member at Large
Andrew Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and is the Executive Director of the North Dakota Perinatal Quality Collaborative. His research interests include stress and adversity in the perinatal period, disparities in access to health care, and maternal health outcomes.
- PhD, University of Maryland School of Public Health, 2017
- MPH, New York University, 2009
- BS, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 2007
CONTACT
UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Master of Public Health Program
Department of Population Health
1301 North Columbia Road Stop 9037
Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037
Phone: 701.777.6718
Email: andrew.d.williams@und.edu
Stephanie Leonard
Member at Large
Stephanie Leonard is an Assistant Professor in the Dunlevie Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center at Stanford (https://dunleviemfm.stanford.edu/) and is Research Faculty with the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC; https://www.cmqcc.org/). The overall goal of her research is to advance equitable, positive health experiences and outcomes for pregnant individuals. Her current research focuses on hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.
- PhD, University of California-Berkeley, 2017
- MS, University of California-Los Angeles, 2014
- BS, Cornell University, 2010
CONTACT
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Address: 453 Quarry Road | MC 5317
Stanford, California 94305
Phone: 650-724-1824
Email: stephanie.leonard@stanford.edu
Neda Razaz
International Representative
Neda Razaz is a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Karolinska Institutet. Her team specialize in linking and analysing large datasets in Sweden and Canada to understand the role of maternal and paternal chronic illness during pregnancy, and medication use for mothers and babies, during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, and beyond throughout the mother and child’s life course. Furthermore, they examine neonatal and treatment factors that influences the risk of neurodevelopmental and somatic outcomes in childhood and early adulthood.
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University of British Columbia, PhD in Epidemiology, Dec 2015
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University of British Columbia, Master of Public Health, Dec 2010
CONTACT
Karolinska Institutet
Address: Maria Aspmans gata 30A, 17164
Phone: +46852482507
Email: neda.razaz@ki.se
Xuanxuan Zhu
Trainee Representative
Xuanxuan Zhu is a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Population Health Research in the Division of Intramural Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Her research focuses on the developmental origins of health and disease, with particular emphasis on how early-life exposures such as nutrition, physical activity, and mental health influence child health and developmental outcomes across the life course.
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PhD, University of South Carolina, 2024
- MPH, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, 2018
CONTACT
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
6710B Rockledge Dr
Bethesda, MD 20817
Email: xuanxuan.zhu@nih.gov