Researcher Spotlight
Kathryn Pitkin Derose
Policy Researcher
Kathryn Pitkin Derose has been honored with a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Derose was nominated by the Department of Health and Human Services: National Institutes of Health for work that “shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century.” On July 26, she was honored with 55 award recipients at a White House ceremony.
“I was delighted that Dr. Derose was put forward by NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) and selected by the President's Office on Science and Technology for this Science and Engineering focused award,” says Dr. Susan Newcomer of NICHD's Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch. “It's so important for the social and behavioral sciences to be included, rather than treated as ‘second class.' We nominated her both because of her interesting and multivaried research and service experience and because of the timeliness and rigor of the study she is conducting with NICHD funding.”
The award provides five years of supplemental and continuation funding for Derose's current work as a principal investigator on an NICHD-funded study RAND is conducting on Urban Congregations' Capacity for HIV Prevention & Care. “The funding will allow us to do a more comprehensive study, including qualitative and quantitative components,” says Derose. “It will also allow us to take the next step, after understanding better the ‘who, what, and how' of congregational involvement in health and HIV/AIDS, to develop and test a collaborative intervention along with our community partners. It might also provide some support to begin exploring partnerships for similar studies and projects in Latin America, which has been a long-standing interest of mine.”
Derose came to RAND in 1994 to be a full-time project director of a five-year randomized trial of church-based mammography promotion in Los Angeles County. A few years later, she enrolled in the Ph.D. program in health services at UCLA and continued to work part-time at RAND until she completed her degree in 2003. She then accepted a full-time position in December 2003.
In addition to the NICHD-funded study, she is co-investigator on the access team of the COMPARE project and has contributed to the CAHPS project and the Gates Foundation-funded project on Modeling the Benefits of Investments in Global Health Diagnostics. She also has collaborated with the Venice Family Clinic and Behavioral Health Services, Inc. on a pilot project funded by RAND Health that explores health needs and resources among low-income residents and faith-based organizations on the Westside of Los Angeles and Inglewood. From 1999 to 2004, she led RAND's evaluation of the Community Voices Miami project.
Derose has a B.A. in Latin American studies from Duke University, an M.P.H. in population and family health from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in health services from UCLA.
Read the ostp.gov News Release (PDF)
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