Member Spotlight

Cheri Pies, MSW, DrPH
Clinical Professor
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Areas of Expertise:

  • Integration of life course, social determinants and health equity theories
  • Translation to practice and policy
  • Ethical issues in reproductive health
  • Use of qualitative data program design and evaluation
  • MCH curricula design
  • Leadership skill development

Current Projects:

  • P.I. for Best Babies Zone
  • Guest editor for a life course-focused issue of MCH Journal
  • Facilitating an expert panel on life course metrics with AMCHP

"LCRN is invaluable for keeping me informed about the work being done in the life course field and introducing me to cutting-edge academics, practitioners and researchers. This is an exciting time for those of us in the field, trying to take theoretical concepts and move them into practical approaches. LCRN offers me accessible resources for this kind of intellectual stimulation, creative integration and close interdisciplinary collaboration."

Join LCRN

The LCRN has ended. If you would like to join our new network, the Life Course Intervention Research Network (LCIRN), please send an email to lcirn@mednet.ucla.edu with your full name and affiliation.

If you're already a member:

Support Us

LCRN is actively seeking additional funding to develop new and innovative transdisciplinary research and activities.

Inclusive and Diverse

LCRN engages the widest possible range of participants, some new to the production and application of life course health development research. Members include: junior and senior researchers; maternal and child health professionals working in local and state agencies; policymakers at the federal, state and local levels; individuals who represent the families that will be affected by changes to policy and practice; and members of the practice community.

Why We Need You

Although a rapidly growing number of life course studies indicate that early life experiences influence the development of bio-behavioral pathways, there are still many outstanding questions about the relationship between early experiences and lifelong health and well-being, and about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. In addition, questions remain about how existing and emerging knowledge can be applied to the development of evidence-based practice and policy.
Challenges to advancing life course health development research include:

  • A lack of a strong research and data infrastructure to support the development of new methodologies and collaborative approaches to transdisciplinary research
  • Limits on currently available funding
  • The fact that researchers interested and engaged in life course health development research continue to work in discipline-specific silos

Pointing towards a solution: LCRN provides a virtual platform and set of activities that together serve as a new infrastructure for catalyzing progress and enhancing funding to support basic, theoretical, applied and translational life course health development research.

Benefits of Membership

  • Build relationships and share knowledge with experts in disciplines including medicine, public health, education, economics, psychology, sociology, social work and more
  • Access new tools and methodologies
  • Help attract funding to support life course health development research
  • Receive periodic e-news from the LCRN team at UCLA about activities and opportunities
  • Apply for a limited number of LCRN seed grants
  • Participate in a project that will ultimately facilitate a paradigm shift in how we think about health promotion and disease prevention

Member Responsibilities

  • Contribute time, expertise and resources in order to continually increase the capacity and capabilities of other individual members and the overall network
  • Demonstrate the utmost respect for other members’ original ideas, unique contributions and intellectual property

For more detailed information about membership benefits and responsibilities, please see the
LCRN charter.