On September 1st 2019 Michael B. Bracken, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology relinquished his role as Co-Director of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology to Andrew DeWan, Associate Professor (with tenure) of Epidemiology who will serve as Co-Director with Brian Leaderer, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences).
The Center was founded in 1979 as the Yale Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (YPEU) by then Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, Robert Berliner, to support research in perinatal epidemiology being conducted by the then departments of Epidemiology and Public Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics (especially Neonatology). The founding Director was Professor Bracken. The YPEU became a Center in 2002 to recognize an expanded scope of work and increased collaboration of Bracken and Leaderer’s research. Largely funded by grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health, in its 40-year history, faculty associated with the CPPEE have published over one thousand papers in the biomedical literature and which relate to improving successful pregnancies, and the health of mothers, newborns and young children. Professor DeWan’s expertise is in genetic epidemiology which will enhance the CPPEE’s work by incorporating genetics into studies of pregnancy and childhood health.