Amanda Simanek, PhD MPH, Founding Member, Contributing Writer
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, IL
Dr. Amanda M. Simanek received her MPH in International Health Epidemiology and PhD in Epidemiologic Science from University of Michigan School of Public Health. A social epidemiologist by training, she studies the pathways by which social inequities in health develop across the lifecourse and are perpetuated across generations. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foundational Sciences and Humanities in the Chicago Medical School and founding Director of the Michael Reese Foundation Center for Healthy Equity Research at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL. Her most recent research was funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the Marmot Prince Mahidol Fellowship and focuses on understanding the biologic pathways by which prenatal socioeconomic disadvantage adversely affects offspring health such as via fetal programming of the immune system and via alterations to the neonatal epigenome. She has also studied the role that bacteria and viruses that persist in the body over time play in the development of chronic disease outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and depression. Her research related to infectious disease has been published in leading journals including the International Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Amanda enjoys hiking, biking and beach time with her partner, three kids (ages 6, 11 and 13), and two pups.
