Jeannette Ickovics, PhD

Jeannette R. Ickovics is the Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is a Visiting Professor at Yale-National University of Singapore for the 2017-2018 academic year. Dr. Ickovics was Founding Director of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Public Health. She is Director of CARE: Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, and Deputy Director for the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS where she was Director of an NIH training program for pre- and post- doctoral fellows for 15 years (now co-Director). Dr. Ickovics’ research investigates the interplay of complex biomedical, behavioral, social and psychological factors that influence individual and community health. She uses this lens to examine challenges faced by those often marginalized by the health care system and by society. She has expertise in running large, scientifically rigorous clinical trials in community settings. Her community-based research – funded with more than $38 million in grants from the NIH, CDC, and private foundations – is characterized by methodological rigor and cultural sensitivity. She has held important academic and community leadership positions for the past decade, honing her leadership skills and expertise. As Director of CARE, she is seen as a trusted and respected collaborator. Through her work at CARE, she secured New Haven as the first US site of Community Interventions for Health, a multi-national, multi-sectoral research collaborative focused on the prevention of chronic diseases worldwide. She was founding Chair of the Adherence Committee of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (NIAID), responsible for the adherence portfolio across 27 AIDS Clinical Trials Units nationwide. Dr. Ickovics has been able to successfully accomplish all scientific goals ranging from nurturing institutional relationships, study design and implementation, recruitment and retention of hard-to-reach study participants, and data analysis, interpretation and dissemination. She has been PI on two multi-site NIH-funded randomized controlled trials on an innovative model of group prenatal care. Based on successful health outcomes, The United Health Foundation funded a dissemination study of group prenatal care in Detroit MI and Nashville TN, with an eye toward national scale-up. Dr. Ickovics is currently PI of a public-private evaluation with Merck for Mothers (evaluating the use of community health workers for pregnant women with chronic disease) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. She recently completed an NIH-funded randomized controlled obesity prevention trial at 12 middle schools in collaboration with the Rudd Center and the New Haven Public Schools. Dr. Ickovics is the recipient of national awards and recognition, and is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.