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Principle Investigator
Barbara Cohn is the Director of the Child Health and Development Studies. Dr. Cohn is an ardent supporter of public university education. Professionally, Dr. Cohn has been studying the early life determinants of women's and men's health across the lifespan. She has studied environmental predictors of fertility and cancer, the relationship of pregnancy to health across the life-span including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Dr. Cohn is passionate about the link between sound research and strategies to improve public health. Dr. Cohn has dedicated her scientific career to producing needed information for development of better policies and programs, believing that good intentions are insufficient to bring about meaningful improvements to health. Ironically, Dr. Cohn's husband of 30 years, a professor at UC Berkeley, died of lymphoma four years ago following three years of severe illness and treatment. Now a widow touched by cancer, Dr. Cohn is even more strongly committed to make a difference by identifying options for cancer prevention starting now. She has three grown children, two who are also CAL Bears and one a UC Davis Aggie. In her spare time, Dr. Cohn loves to be outdoors, hiking with her three dogs Jake, Bandit, and Camilu. All the dogs help her at the office.
Full bio >
Senior Research Scientist
Piera Cirillo is a Senior Research Scientist with the Child Health and Development Studies. She has worked with the study for over 20 years and has played an integral role in the conception, planning and implementation of the Three Generations Study. Piera was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and later worked at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies isolating steroid receptors for the glucocorticoid hormones before getting her Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology. She is interested in continuing and contributing to the priceless legacy of Dr. Yerushalmy, who began the study in 1958. She believes that the CHDS mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters have a remarkable story to tell. Theirs is a story that provides clues about what behavior and what exposures might be linked to health. It will inform scientists about possible new treatments and methods of disease prevention. She is excited about re-connecting with the adult sons and daughters and their children in new studies that are currently in progress. The CHDS children's children will provide the opportunity to gain insight about the intergenerational transmission of disease and about the interaction between genes and environment. Piera enjoys running with her border collie, Tucker and cooking, eating and spending time with her family.
Full bio >
Research Associate
Lauren Zimmermann earned a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley in 2004 and an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from San Diego State University in 2008. Lauren worked with the Department of Defense Millennium Cohort before coming to work with the 3Gs Study. Lauren knits in all of her spare time and also enjoys reading, gardening and bicycling.
Research Associate
Nickilou Krigbaum joined the CHDS in March 2010. Before joining the CHDS team she worked in various environmental fields from influencing policy to stream ecology. She has a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Davis. She loves the outdoors and has spent much of the past few years wandering about the Eastern Sierras for recreation and research. When she is not fending off mountain lions in the Sierras, Nickilou enjoys climbing, hanging out with her geriatric toothless cat, and reading. Being a UCD Aggie alumnus, it is no surprise she is fascinated by cows and likes riding her bicycle.
Research Assistant
Celeste Hutchinson has spent the last twenty years in small business administration with local construction and interior design companies. She joined the CHDS in January as a research assistant for the Three Generations Study. When not at her desk at CHDS bringing her signature wacky enthusiasm and diligence to her work as a research assistant, she freelances as a decorative arts painter.
CHDS Program Administrator
Carol has more than 20 years of experience in grants and contracts management, including her experience as the Manager of Grants and Contracts at the Public Health Institute. She has a BA in Economics from California State University, Hayward. Carol is a master gardener and tutors at the Lafayette School Mentoring Program in Oakland. She enjoys knitting, hiking, traveling and spending time with her family. She and her husband Frank have been married for 39 years and have two grown children that live close by.
Consultant to 3Gs
Marj Plumb is a non-profit consultant, trainer, and facilitator who specializes in public policy, community-based participatory research, and organizational and leadership development. She has served for over twenty-five years in senior management positions with a variety of non-profit organizations. She is the founding director of the Women's Foundation of California's Women's Policy Institute, a 12 month program training women in public policy advocacy. She is a senior consultant with the California Breast Cancer Research Program, working as both the lead trainer for the Community Research Collaboration awards and facilitating the development of the five year, $18 million dollar strategic planning project to fund innovative research on the environmental causes of breast cancer and the causes of breast cancer disparities. Marj has a Master's degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Francisco and a Doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley with Tracy, the love of her life, a research sociologist at UCSF, and their two yellow labs, Beaumont and Buddy.
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Terry received her PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University in 1999, after receiving her MA in Economics from the University of Washington in 1990. Dr. Terry focuses her research on breast cancer and on the molecular epidemiology and lifecourse methods of the disease, and in particular she is investigating how adult health and diseases such as breast cancer may be influenced by prenatal and early life exposures. She has led two large-scale studies of adult health in U.S. birth cohorts focusing on early life predictors of mammographic density. She has also focused on family-based studies and is currently leading the New York site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR) and measuring breast cancer risk within affected and unaffect family-based cohorts based on integrating information from PEDIGREE, clinical, genetic and epidemiologic data. She has recently initiated a study of young girls within these same high risk families to examine early life factors and early indicators of breast cancer risk (The LEGACY Girls Study). Her work in studying birth cohorts as well as other family-based cohorts includes studies investigating the role of prenatal exposures on DNA methylation patterns and other biomarkers of risk and understanding the role of biomarker changes in altering cancer risk.She recently reported that prenatal exposures affect the timing of menarche, adult body size, and epigenetic changes - all indicators of future cancer risk. Dr. Terry teaches introductory and advanced epidemiologic methods at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Project Director
Ann received her Master's of Public Health degree from Columbia University in 2010, with a focus on cancer epidemiology and her Bachelor's degree from Emory University in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. In addition to the PEDIGREE study she works with Dr. Terry on the New York site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR) and the LEGACY Girls Study. Previous to her work at Columbia University, Ann was based in Atlanta and worked for Emory University School of Medicine at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Ann's research interests include evaluating the effectiveness of national cancer prevention guidelines among women with a family history of breast cancer, DNA methylation of genetic promoter regions, and the methodology of family-based data collection. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two dogs, one beagle and one shepard mutt. Ann's interests include cooking, biking, walking her dogs and traveling whenever possible.
Project Coordinator
Sheena Cresswell joined the CHDS in December 2010 as project coordinator for the PEDIGREE study. Before joining the CHDS team Sheena was a surveillance epidemiologist at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California. She graduated with her Masters in Public Health from New York University in 2006. Sheena comes to the CHDS with almost 10 years of experience in the field of public health including reproductive health and tuberculosis control. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family which includes her husband and two small children.
Principle Investigator
Barbara Cohn is the Director of the Child Health and Development Studies. Dr. Cohn is an ardent supporter of public university education. Professionally, Dr. Cohn has been studying the early life determinants of women's and men's health across the lifespan. She has studied environmental predictors of fertility and cancer, the relationship of pregnancy to health across the life-span including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Dr. Cohn is passionate about the link between sound research and strategies to improve public health. Dr. Cohn has dedicated her scientific career to producing needed information for development of better policies and programs, believing that good intentions are insufficient to bring about meaningful improvements to health. Ironically, Dr. Cohn's husband of 30 years, a professor at UC Berkeley, died of lymphoma four years ago following three years of severe illness and treatment. Now a widow touched by cancer, Dr. Cohn is even more strongly committed to make a difference by identifying options for cancer prevention starting now. She has three grown children, two who are also CAL Bears and one a UC Davis Aggie. In her spare time, Dr. Cohn loves to be outdoors, hiking with her three dogs Jake, Bandit, and Camilu. All the dogs help her at the office.
Full bio >
Co-Principle Investigator
Laurie Havas was born in 1960 and raised in an average middle class household as the only daughter (she has two brothers) of two college educated parents. Her mother, a liberal, "stay at home" woman decided to participate in the CHDS study and Laurie is proud to continue this legacy. Laurie has two young adult children; a daughter and a son. Laurie has two college degrees in the life sciences, but currently works in the field of equine veterinarian and livestock supply sales in Pleasant Hill. She lives an active lifestyle including exercise, diet and mental wellness. She hopes this is a way of life that her children will adopt and carry with them through their long lives. She also hopes that participation in the CHDS will further increase their long, healthy and productive lives. In addition to being co-principle investigator of the MyCHDSReport Study she is also part of the CHDS Participant Advisory Council (PAC) and a member of the 3 Generations Study External Advisory Committee (EAC).
Senior Research Scientist
Piera Cirillo is a Senior Research Scientist with the Child Health and Development Studies. She has worked with the study for over 20 years and has played an integral role in the conception, planning and implementation of the Three Generations Study. Piera was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and later worked at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies isolating steroid receptors for the glucocorticoid hormones before getting her Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology. She is interested in continuing and contributing to the priceless legacy of Dr. Yerushalmy, who began the study in 1958. She believes that the CHDS mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters have a remarkable story to tell. Theirs is a story that provides clues about what behavior and what exposures might be linked to health. It will inform scientists about possible new treatments and methods of disease prevention. She is excited about re-connecting with the adult sons and daughters and their children in new studies that are currently in progress. The CHDS children's children will provide the opportunity to gain insight about the intergenerational transmission of disease and about the interaction between genes and environment. Piera enjoys running with her border collie, Tucker and cooking, eating and spending time with her family.
Full bio >
Consultant to 3Gs
Marj Plumb is a non-profit consultant, trainer, and facilitator who specializes in public policy, community-based participatory research, and organizational and leadership development. She has served for over twenty-five years in senior management positions with a variety of non-profit organizations. She is the founding director of the Women's Foundation of California's Women's Policy Institute, a 12 month program training women in public policy advocacy. She is a senior consultant with the California Breast Cancer Research Program, working as both the lead trainer for the Community Research Collaboration awards and facilitating the development of the five year, $18 million dollar strategic planning project to fund innovative research on the environmental causes of breast cancer and the causes of breast cancer disparities. Marj has a Master's degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Francisco and a Doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley with Tracy, the love of her life, a research sociologist at UCSF, and their two yellow labs, Beaumont and Buddy.
Research Collaborator
Dr. Julia Brody, executive director of Silent Spring Institute, is a leader in research on breast cancer and the environment and in community-based research and public engagement in science. Brody’s current research focuses on methods for reporting to people on their own exposures to hormone disruptors and other emerging contaminants when the health effects are uncertain.
She also recently led a project connecting breast cancer advocacy and environmental justice in a study of household exposures to endocrine disruptors and air pollutants through a collaboration of Silent Spring Institute, Communities for a Better Environment (a California-based environmental justice organization), and researchers at Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1996, Brody has been the principal investigator of the Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study, a case-control study of 2,100 women that includes testing for 89 endocrine disruptors in homes and historical exposure mapping. The study was the first to measure estrogenic activity in groundwater and drinking water. Results have been published in Environmental Health Perspectives and elsewhere.
Dr. Brody led a two-year review of scientific review of evidence on animal mammary gland carcinogens and epidemiologic studies of breast cancer and environmental pollutants, diet, body size, and physical activity, which was published in a special supplement to the American Cancer Society peer-reviewed journal, Cancer.
Brody’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the New York Community Trust, and the Avon Foundation, among others. Her research collaborators include investigators at Harvard and Brown universities, the University of California, Berkeley, and elsewhere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized her research with an Environmental Merit Award in 2000, and she has been honored by the Heroes Tribute of the Breast Cancer Fund. She presented one of the Distinguished Lectures at the National Cancer Institute in 2002 and the Keystone Science Lecture at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2009. She serves on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council, appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and she is as an advisor to the California Breast Cancer Research Program and breast cancer activist organizations.
Dr. Brody is an adjunct assistant professor at the Brown University School of Medicine. She earned her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and her AB at Harvard University.
Special Advisor
Ms. Washington is a second generation cohort member. She is a single parent of a young adult son, of whom she is proud. She is also caring for her elderly mother, who lives with her; which is a job in itself. She enjoys going to her local farmer's market, singing for her church and for many special occasions, trying new recipes and to travel. Her dream is to go to Hawaii, hopefully in the near future. Ms. Washington's mother enrolled in the Child Health Development Studies during her pregnancy with her daughter in the 1960's at Kaiser Oakland. In addition to being special advisor to the MyCHSReport Study, Ida is also a valuable member of the CHDS Participant Advisory Council (PAC) and CHDS External Advisory Committee (EAC) for the 3 Generations Study. Ida hopes that by participating on these studies that she can be a representative voice as a daughter of the CHDS.
Project Coordinator
Sheena Cresswell joined the CHDS in December 2010 as project coordinator for the PEDIGREE study. Before joining the CHDS team Sheena was a surveillance epidemiologist at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California. She graduated with her Masters in Public Health from New York University in 2006. Sheena comes to the CHDS with almost 10 years of experience in the field of public health including reproductive health and tuberculosis control. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family which includes her husband and two small children.
Research Associate
Nickilou Krigbaum joined the CHDS in March 2010. Before joining the CHDS team she worked in various environmental fields from influencing policy to stream ecology. She has a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Davis. She loves the outdoors and has spent much of the past few years wandering about the Eastern Sierras for recreation and research. When she is not fending off mountain lions in the Sierras, Nickilou enjoys climbing, hanging out with her geriatric toothless cat, and reading. Being a UCD Aggie alumnus, it is no surprise she is fascinated by cows and likes riding her bicycle.
Project Coordinator
Eileen has been with the Public Health Institute for more than 10 years working as a program administrator and project coordinator. She is also a professional musician; she currently serves as Music Director for El Sobrante United Methodist and has a Master of Church Music from Concordia University Chicago. In addition to music making and science, Eileen enjoys hiking, birding, and photography.
The External Advisory Committee is a group of people, not affiliated with the CHDS, that meet regularly on a long-term basis to provide support to the study, including advising our scientists on what health issues are important to examine in the cohort and helping us make decisions about how best to conduct our research.
External Advisory Committee Members
- Janice Barlow, RN, NP
Executive Director, Zero Breast Cancer
- Leslie Bernstein, PhD
Professor and Director, Division of Cancer Etiology, City of Hope
- Mina J. Bissell, PhD
Director and Distinguished Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Life Sciences Division
- Julia G. Brody, PhD
Executive Director, Silent Spring Institute
- Laurie Havas, BS, RDH
CHDS cohort member (2nd generation)
- Marion Kavanaugh-Lynch, MD, MPH
Director, California Breast Cancer Research Program
- Senaida Poole, Ph.D.
Community Initiatives & Public Health Sciences Program Officer
- Claudine Torfs, PhD
Retired Epidemiologist, California Birth Defects Monitoring Program
- Ida Washington
CHDS cohort member (2nd generation)
- Deborah Wingard, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine,UCSD School of Medicine
- Irene Yen, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, University of California San Francisco Department of Medicine
Contact Us
Three Generations Study (3Gs)
Child Health and Development Studies
Phone: (510) 649-6390 if calling from the Bay Area or
call toll free (877) 482-0264, from outside the Bay Area.
Email:
The 3Gs study staff is happy to answer any questions you have about the 3Gs study, the CHDS, or to hear about your 3Gs study participation experience. Please use the form below or feel free to call us.
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