Katharine Mccarthy, PhD

Dr. McCarthy is a perinatal epidemiologist with research focused on identifying the drivers of lifecourse disparities in cardiometabolic and maternal and newborn health. Dr. McCarthy has multidisciplinary training that ranges from (1) the biological level, understanding the epigenetic ramifications of external stressors, to (2) quantifying the association between adverse life course exposures in relation to trajectories maternal and newborn health outcomes and (3) improving measurement of the coverage and quality of essential maternal and newborn health interventions aimed at addressing health disparities. She seeks to develop a translational research program across these areas to investigate how exposure to structural and social disadvantage disrupts normal biological processes across the life course to amplify risk of adverse maternal and newborn health outcomes with the goal of intervention development.

Dr. McCarthy teaches Epidemiology III in the Masters of Health Program at ISMMS and is affiliated with the Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute. She leads the Institute’s summer mentorship program for adolescent girls, which seeks to increase representation of underrepresented groups in women’s health research and practice.