Pamela Surkan, ScD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Social and Behavioral Intervention Program, Department of International Health)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Pamela Surkan received her BA in Psychology from the Reed College and completed her ScD in Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and a PhD in Medical Sciences at the Karolinska Institute. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship also at HSPH, she became faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2008.
Her research centers on social and behavioral determinants of maternal and child health, with nutrition and physical growth as focal areas. She recently led a supermarket intervention study in a low-income Baltimore community to promote healthy purchasing. At the GOPC, she collaborates with other center members and has worked closely with Dr. Gittelsohn to investigate social and environmental influences on healthy eating and purchasing.
For more information see here.
Representative Publications:
- Patel S, Surkan PJ. Unwanted childbearing and household food insecurity in the United States. Maternal and Child Nutrition (in press).
- Surkan PJ, Ettinger AK, Hock RS, Ahmed S, Strobino D, Minkovitz CS. Early maternal depressive symptoms and child growth trajectories. BMC Pediatrics 2014; 14(1):185.
- Pollard SL, Wingert K, Zachary DA, Schofield S, Surkan PJ. Family and community influences on diabetes-related dietary change in a low-income, urban neighborhood. Diabetes Educator 2014; 40(4): 462-469.
- Wingert K, Zachary DA, Fox MJ, Gittelsohn J, Surkan PJ. Child as change agent: The potential of children’s influence to increase healthy food purchasing. Appetite 2014; 81: 330-336.
- Surkan PJ, Coutinho AJ, Christiansen K, Dennisuk LA, Suratkar S, Mead E, Sharma S, Gittelsohn J. Healthy food purchasing among African-American youth, associations with child gender, adult caregiver characteristics and the home food environment. Public Health Nutrition 2011; 14(4) 670-677.
- Surkan PJ, Kawachi I, Peterson KE. Maternal depressive symptoms and child overweight. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2008; 62(5): e11-17.
For a full publications list see here.