 Jack Turman, Jr., PhD: Dr. Turman is the founder and Director of the Center for Premature Infant Health and Development. Dr. Turman started his career as a pediatric physical therapist where he became interested in the growth and developmental outcomes of children born preterm. Dr. Turman earned his PhD in Kinesiology (neuroscience emphasis) at UCLA, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Turman is a developmental neurobiologist with faculty appointments in the Departments of Cell and Neurobiology, and Pediatrics in the Keck School of Medicine, and in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy in the School of Dentistry. Dr. Turman is internationally recognized for his research characterizing the development of brain regions critical for feeding behavior. His research has grown to study how early brain injury, commonly observed in preterm infants, impacts feeding, cognitive, and emotional development. Dr. Turman is on the Editorial Advisory Board for Preemie Magazine, and is an active member in the Society for Neuroscience, the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology and the Western Society for Pediatrics Research. Dr. Turman was recently appointed to the California Premature Infant Health Project, wherein he will help guide the research and service vision for California’s preterm infants and their families.
Contact Information
Jack Turman, Jr., PhD
Email: Turman@usc.edu
Office phone: 323-442-2947
Fax: 323-442-1515
 Kathleen Burke, PhD: Dr. Burke completed her PhD in Neural Science at Indiana University in 2002, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale University Child Study Center in 2005, before joining the Center as a Research Associate in 2005. Dr. Burke is interested in understanding how preterm birth and early exposure to stress impact the development of neural circuits critical for learning and attachment formation. In her current projects she utilizes cellular and behavioral methods to study prefrontal cortex development in a model of late preterm brain injury.
Contact Information
Kathleen Burke, Ph.D
Email: kathleab@usc.edu
Office phone: 323-442-1195
 Tyan Parker-Dominguez, PhD, MPH, MSW: Dr. Parker-Dominguez is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work and a faculty associate in the Center for Premature Infant Health and Development, Keck School of Medicine. With a background in medical social work, community mental health practice, maternal and child health, and health psychology, Dr. Parker Dominguez is interested in the ways in which psychosocial stress, particularly racism-related stress, adversely affects birth outcomes and potentially contributes to persistent racial disparities in preterm delivery, low birthweight, and infant mortality. She currently is working on a project that examines psychosocial and cultural contributors to nativity-related differences in Black women’s pregnancy outcomes. Future plans include a study of the adult health implications of childhood racism experiences and a faith-based, psychosocial intervention project to promote positive pregnancy outcomes in African American women. Dr. Parker Dominguez’s work has been presented at the New York Academy of Medicine, the Society for Maternal/Fetal Medicine, the Society for Behavioral Medicine, and the American Public Health Association, among others. She has testified in Washington, DC before the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality about the problem of racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes, and was a panelist at an institute conducted on the subject at the National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health. Dr. Parker Dominguez is co-chair of the Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Committee of the Maternal and Child Health section of the American Public Health Association, Chair of the Board of the California Black Women’s Health Project, a member of the Board of Directors of the Drew Child Development Corporation, and most importantly, the mother of three boys.
Contact Information
Tyan Parker Dominguez, PhD, MPH, MSW
tyanpark@usc.edu
Office phone: 213-740-2765
Fax: 213-740-0789
 Marian E. Williams, PhD: Dr. Williams Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine, became Director of The CHILD Center of the UCEDD in 2007. Dr. Williams was formerly the Program Area Lead for Early Childhood Mental Health Services at the UCEDD. In addition to leadership for the CHILD Center, Dr. Williams collaborates with faculty of the USC Center for Premature Infant Health and Development, serves as faculty for the LEND Training Program, teaches graduate courses in the USC Department of Psychology, and participates in Project ABC, a collaborative working to improve the system of care for children aged birth to five and their families. A licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in infant mental health, psychological assessment, developmental disabilities, interdisciplinary training, and access to services, Dr. Williams is currently developing and implementing research projects to promote attachment and improve feeding and developmental outcomes in preterm infants, develop improved systems for early diagnosis and intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders, and improve mental health care for infants and toddlers in the foster care system.
Contact Information
Marian E. Williams, PhD
Email: mwilliams@chla.usc.edu
Phone: 323-361-8525
Fax: 323-671-3843
 Sheila C. Woodward, PhD: Dr. Woodward is on the Music Education faculty at the University of Southern California. She is a native of South Africa and earned her Ph. D. in music education from the University of Cape Town in 1993. Dr. Woodward is on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). She served on the ISME Early Childhood Music Education Commission from 1996 – 1998, four of those years as the chair. She has served on numerous professional committees in both the USA and South Africa. Dr. Woodward has published in books and journals and has presented at conferences in many parts of the world. Her areas of focus include music in the life of the fetus and neonate and a range of community programs designed for early childhood, at risk youth, and juvenile offenders. She is particularly concerned with the communicative nature of musical experience and its value in improving physical, cognitive, emotional and social outcomes in life-long learners. Through an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach, Dr. Woodward engages her students in the study of the philosophical, psychological and sociological nature of music learning and teaching. She prepares students to meet the challenges of the 21st century through developing research and technological skills, critical thinking and global perspectives.
Contact Information
Sheila Woodward, PhD
swoodwar@usc.edu
Office phone: 213-740-3211
Fax: 213-821-1865
 Jesus Dominguez, PhD: Dr. Dominquez received his Masters in Physical Therapy, and PhD in Biokinesiology, from USC in 1988 and 2002 respectively. Dr. Dominguez is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. Dr. Dominguez is a systems physiologist investigating the impact of perinatal brain injury on the development of metabolism and neural centers involved with the regulation of metabolism.
Contact Information
Jesus F. Dominguez, PhD, PT
Email: jdomingu@usc.edu
Office phone: 323-442-2907
Fax: 323-442-1515
 Jennifer Holtzman, DDS, MPH: Dr. Holtzman received her DDS from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry, and has her MPH from the University of California at Los Angeles. An Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Dentistry, she is Director of both the Neighborhood Mobile Dental Van Prevention Program and the Doctors Out to Care program. Dr. Holtzman’s research activities focus on addressing oral health disparities, concentrating on children at risk of developing tooth decay, integrating the changing paradigms in the prevention of dental disease in both the community and the primary health care system. In addition to teaching commitments, Dr. Holtzman serves on the California Dental Associations Policy Development Council and on the board of the Los Angeles Oral Health Foundation.
Contact Information
Jennifer Holtzman, DDS, MPH
Email: Jennifer.Holtzman@usc.edu
Office phone: 213-740-1098
Fax: 213-740-8663
 Smeeta Sardesai, MD: Smeeta Sardesai, MD, MSEd: Dr. Sardesai is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at University of Southern California. Dr. Sardesai is a board certified neonatalogist that completed her general pediatrics training at Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital and LAC+USC Medical Center. Dr. Sardesai also has a Masters in Medical Education from the Rossier School of Education at USC. Dr. Sardesai is the Associate Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Director of neonatal transport services for the NICU at LAC+USC Medical Center and as such, oversees the day to day functioning of the NICU and its support activity. She is also an attending neonatologist at Good Samaritan Hospital. Dr. Sardesai’s responsibilities include teaching neonatology to medical students, interns, residents, fellows, nurses and nurse practitioners, and conducting periodic refresher courses in neonatology to practicing physicians and nurses. Dr. Sardesai’s research interests include prevention of lung injury in preterm infants, newborn nutrition and feeding disorders in infants, and treatment of pulmonary hypertension.
Contact Information
Smeeta Sardesai, MD
Email: sardesai@usc.edu
Office Phone: 323-226-4245
FAX: 323-226-3440
 Andrew Curtis, Ph.D: Department of Geography at the University of Southern California and former Director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Remote Sensing and GIS for Public Health (whocc.lsu.edu) at Louisiana State University. His research interests include the geography of health, with a particular emphasis on spatial analysis and geospatial technology. He has worked for eight years on a project to reduce African American infant mortality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was one of the original co-writers of the Baton Rouge Healthy Start Program Eliminating Disparities in Perinatal Health which was one of the first community based health organizations to have created a database/GIS for both program reporting and ongoing spatial analysis. This GIS is used as a management information system and as a means to collect detailed information on a variety of individual, family and neighborhood risks. While working with Healthy Start, he has modeled various infant risk surfaces, investigated geographic characteristics of the program participants (including how domicile mobility impacts results), considered aspects of spatial confidentiality, and how the pregnant population is especially vulnerable to disasters. He has published a book as a summary of this experience Geographical Information Systems and Public Health: Eliminating Perinatal Disparity which documents the way GIS evolved in the Baton Rouge Healthy Start program. In addition, he served on the Baton Rouge Fetal and Infant Mortality Review board, has experience of Perinatal Periods of Risk, and provided GIS services to various local non-profit organizations. In 2005 after the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, he and his WHOCC lab were part of a Louisiana State University team providing geospatial support for search and rescue operations in the Louisiana Emergency Operation Center. He continues to work on various Katrina related recovery projects, especially concerning the impact of a disaster on vulnerable populations. His work with Katrina has also resulted in the development of new geospatial technologies for neighborhood-level research, including GPS enabled digital video capture.
Contact Information
Andrew Curtis PhD
Email: ajcurtis@usc.edu
Office phone: 213-740-0061
Fax: 213-740-9687 |
