Whitney P. Witt, Ph.D, MPH

 

Dr. Whitney P. Witt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the School of Medicine and Public Health at University of Wisconsin, Madison.  She holds a Ph.D. in health services research and a M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a B.A. in women's studies and law from Hampshire College.  She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Pediatric Health Services Research Program (AHRQ, T32 HS00063), directed by Dr. Donald A. Goldmann, Children's Hospital Boston.  Prior to her current position, Dr. Witt served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the Acting Director of the Section on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Buehler Center on Aging.     OVERARCHING RESEARCH INTERESTS  Dr. Witt is broadly interested in the social, behavioral, and psychological factors that contribute to healthy aging across the lifespan. Specifically her research focuses on the impact of acute, chronic and terminal illness on the family system and aims to determine how familial relationships influence the health behaviors, health and mental health status, and healthcare services use of individuals over time. Moreover, the goal of her research is to understand the physiological, behavioral, and social pathways by which health perceptions affect the health and healthcare use of family caregivers and individuals living with illness.  Dr. Witt is building a research program to examine caregiver mind-body interactions and how such interactions may help explain health disparities within and between families.  Together, this information will help in constructing effective interventions for these families to improve patient health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and address family burden. She is the Principal Investigator of a five-year career development grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to examine the impact of childhood chronic illness on the family. As part of this work she will assess and compare the level of psychological stress, both self-reported and biologically measured, between parents of children with chronic illness and parents of children without chronic illness.  Moreover, this study will examine the feasibility, performance, and comparability of stress biomarkers and perceived psychological stress among parental caregivers and how such measures are related to child health outcomes. Dr. Witt’s research has also been supported by the American Cancer Society and the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation.   PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Population Association of America, Member, Spring 2006-present           Buehler Center on Aging, Development Subcommittee, Summer 2005-Fall 2006     Cells to Society: The Center on Social Disparities and Health at the Institute for Policy Research, Executive Board Member, Spring 2005-Fall 2006       Institute for Policy Research, Faculty Associate, Winter 2005-Fall 2006       Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Member, Fall 2004-Fall 2006            The Buehler Center on Aging, Affiliate, Fall 2004-present               Society of Pediatric Psychology, Member, Spring 2002-2003              Ambulatory Pediatric Association, Member, Fall 2001-present               U.S. DHHS, Health Resources and Services Administration Women’s Health Research Committee, Fall 1997-Fall 1998            U.S. DHHS, Public Health Service, Office on Women’s Health Women and HIV/AIDS Cooperative Planning Group, Member, Fall 1997-Fall 1998            AcademyHealth, Member Spring 1997-present           Maryland Public Health Association, Member Spring 1997-1998              Expert Planning Committee on Medicaid Managed Care and Women with HIV/AIDS, Member, Fall 1996                            American Public Health Association, Member Fall 1996-present               AIDS Legislative Committee, Steering Committee Member Fall 1995-Spring 1996       Deaf AIDS Project, Legal Representative, Fall 1994-Spring 1995       GMHC Women's Caucus, Member, Fall 1994-Spring 1995         HONORS AND AWARDS 2006 World Parkinson Congress Junior Scholar Award Awarded the HPM Faculty of Health Services Research Student Conference Presentation Award, 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 Awarded the National Research Service Award (NRSA), from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Training Fellowship Program Legal Department Representative for the Deaf AIDS Project Agency Forum (appointed), Gay Men's Health Crisis, Inc. Legal Department Representative to testify before the Council of the City of New York (appointed), Gay Men's Health Crisis, Inc. PUBLICATIONS - most relevant Hung, S, Pickard, S, Witt, WP, and Lambert, BL.  Pain and Depression in Caregivers Affected Their Perception of Pain in Stroke Patients. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.  2007 Sep; Volume 60, Issue 9, Pages 963-970. Witt, WP, Gibbs, J, Wang, J, Giobbie-Hurder, A, Edelman, P, McCarthy, Jr., M, and Neumayer, L.  The Impact of Inguinal Hernia Repair on Family and Other Informal Caregivers. Archives of Surgery. 2006. Sep; 141(9):925-30. Witt, WP, Fortuna, L, Wu, E, Kahn, R, Winickoff, J, Pirraglia, PA, Ferris, TG, and Kuhlthau, K. Children’s Use of Motor Vehicle Restraints: Maternal Psychological Distress, Maternal Motor Vehicle Restraint Practices, and Sociodemographics. Ambulatory Pediatrics. 2006. May-June 6(3): 145-151. Witt, WP, Kasper, JD, and Riley, AW. Mental Health Services Use Among School-Aged Children with Disabilities: The Role of Socio-demographics, Functional Limitations, Family Burdens and Care Coordination. Health Services Research.  2003; 38(6), Part 1: 1441-1466. Witt, WP, Riley, AW, Coiro, MJ. Childhood Functional Status, Family Stressors, and Psychosocial Adjustment Among School-Aged Children with Disabilities in the U.S. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. 2003; 157 (7): 687-695. Wu, AW and Witt, WP.  The impact of HIV infection on health-related quality of life.  In: Badia, X and Podzamczer, D, eds.  Calidad de vida asociada a la salud e infeccion por el VIH.  Madrid, Spain; 2000. Witt, WP, Riley, AW, Kasper, JD.  The Impact of Missing Linkage Data in Family Health Research: Results from the 1994-1995 National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement.  In:  Altman, B.M., Barnartt, S.N., Hendershot, G. and Larson, S., eds. Research in Social Science and Disability, Using Survey Data to Study Disability: Results from the National Health Interview Survey on Disability. Elsevier Publishing, London, England; 2003; Volume 3, 73-86. Lyons, J and Witt, W. Understanding the impact of mental health research on policy in the United States:  Past, Present, and Future. In Choosing methods in mental health research. Slade M, Priebe S, (eds), Hove: Routledge. 2006. 202-211.    TEACHING EXPERIENCE Current Courses: Principles of Population Health Science Course Director University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Population Health Sciences Secondary Analysis of Large Survey Data Sets for Population Health Research Co-Instructor University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Population Health Sciences Seminar on Grant and Proposal Writing Guest Lecturer University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Social Work Past Courses: Introduction to Health Services Research and Evaluation Teacher's Assistant Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health course Finding and Using Public Health Data, Guest Lecturer Boston University School of Public Health Impact of Chronic Illness on the Family: Theoretical Underpinnings Independent Study Director Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine Developmental Disabilities and Chronic Illness Through the Life Cycle Guest Lecturer Center for Genetic Medicine, Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine Advanced Methods & Grant Writing in Health Outcomes Research Guest Lecturer for presentation entitled “K-awards and Early Career awards and Early Career Development: Development: Steps to Success” Department of Pharmacy Practice & Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago   Contact Information: Whitney P. Witt, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor Department of Population Health Sciences School of Medicine and Public Health University of Wisconsin, Madison 610 Walnut Street, Office 503 Madison, WI 53726 Telephone: (608) 265-6290 Fax: (608) 263-2820 Email: wwitt@wisc.edu My Electronic Card Updated 11/01/07