- Titles:
- Patricia Bleznak Silverstein and Howard A. Silverstein Endowed Term Chair in Global Women's Health
- Associate Professor of Health Policy in the Division of Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine
- Scientific Director of CHIBE
- Associate Professor of Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health, School of Nursing
- Education:
- University of California, Los Angeles, PhD, Public Health
- Stanford University, MBA
- Yale University, BA, History
Dr. Buttenheim’s interdisciplinary research agenda on global maternal-child health is focused on understanding how health behavior decisions are made within households, and how socioeconomic and cultural contexts both condition and constrain those decisions. Dr. Buttenheim also practices and promotes rigorous impact evaluation and implementation research to inform investments in maternal-child health programs. Her current program of research applies behavioral economic principles to encourage behavior change and take-up of evidence-based preventive care services in the area of maternal-child health. She has active NIH-funded projects on vaccine hesitancy and vaccine refusal in the US; and on increasing participation in community health programs in Peru. A recognized evaluation expert, Dr. Buttenheim has published or consulted on several impact evaluation studies in international settings. These studies have looked at the impact of village midwife and microfinance programs in Indonesia, school feeding schemes in Laos, household sanitation in Bangladesh, and national family planning strategies in Niger and Jordan. She also consults on the implementation of evidence-based practices in global public health, recently completing an implementation evaluation for the Centers for Disease Control Global Tobacco Control Branch on global tobacco surveillance strategies. Dr. Buttenheim received a PhD in Public Health from the UCLA School of Public Health and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University’s Office of Population Research and with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Societies Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania.