Institute Director Spotlight: Deborah Ehrenthal and the Social Sciences Research Institute

Learn more, in her own words, from Deborah Ehrenthal about her research journey, leading the Social Sciences Research Institute (SSRI) and more.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your journey that took you to the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and about your area of expertise??

A: I began my career as a physician, trained in internal medicine and worked for 22 years at Christian Care Health System, a large [non-university] academic medical center where I was a member of the teaching faculty of the Internal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology residency programs. My area of interest was women’s health and maternal and child health.?

I became the Director of the Community Center of Excellence for Women's Health where I was involved with the community and public health programs in the state of Delaware and ultimately began to develop programs to support maternal and child health in our healthcare system. I worked closely with many state agencies and our healthcare organization to better understand and improve the perinatal outcomes of people in our state.??

My clinical experience sparked my interest in the intersection between maternal health and health risks and perinatal outcomes, and I began conduct research there using electronic health records data. I acquired the essential skills I needed at John Hopkins, where I completed a master's degree in public health.?

In 2014, I was recruited at University of Wisconsin - Madison to the School of Medicine and Public Health. As a faculty member in the departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Population Health Sciences my research expanded to include broader population-health issues, with a continued emphasis on maternal and child health and health early in the life course. I fostered collaborations across disciplines, directed a postdoctoral training program focused on health disparities, and founded the University of Wisconsin Prevention Research Center (UWPRC) with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).??

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Q: What led you to Penn State??

A: That’s a great question. I met several faculty at Penn State College of Medicine and the Prevention Research Center through some colleagues. When the SSRI Director role became available, I was strongly encouraged to apply. I had been living in Pennsylvania since 1988, and while I spent seven fantastic years in Madison, I maintained my primary residence in southeast Pennsylvania. My kids were born and raised in the Kennett Square community. So, the opportunity to come back was quite appealing to me. But more importantly, the opportunity to lead one of the interdisciplinary institutes at Penn State, and work across colleges to build and support research that engages social sciences, was an opportunity I could not pass up!???

But more importantly, the opportunity to lead one of the interdisciplinary institutes at Penn State, and work across colleges to build and support research that engages social sciences, was an opportunity I could not pass up!????

Q: What makes your institute unique??

A: SSRI encompasses the full spectrum of both social and behavioral sciences across the university. The mission of SSRI is to foster novel, interdisciplinary collaborations by investigators who aim to address critical human and social problems at the local, national, and international levels and to translate and disseminate this knowledge into measurable outcomes for human behavior, health, and development. Social and behavioral sciences bring the methods and approaches needed to tackle the challenges of people and communities. By bringing together faculty from these disciplines, and breaking down traditional academic silos, we can effectively foster interdisciplinary collaboration and infuse social science insights into diverse fields.??

SSRI is faculty- centered, and research is our priority. 美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学 is a top university in social and behavioral sciences.? This approach has led to tremendous success by a number of measures. For example, if you review national rankings based on funding -- sociology and psychology are number are #4 and #2 in the country. SSRI is an exciting institute largely because we support talented faculty conducting high impact research. This includes numerous co-funded faculty members as well as those who are not co-funded by our institute but have been supported by our fellowship programs, core research services, or whose work is seeded by SSRI funding.??

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Q: Can you tell us more about SSRI’s core services??

A: My goal is to ensure that Penn State is the best place in the country to be a social scientist. This includes ensuring that our core research resources are tailored to the unique needs of social and behavioral sciences. If we see something that's missing, we engage faculty, listen to their ideas, and move forward.?

To start, the Population Research Institute (PRI) is one of the best population research centers in the country. PRI is an NIH-funded center that provides tremendous support to population researchers like me. SSRI also supports some analytic methodology groups. Quantitative Developmental Systems Methodology Core (QuantDev), as an example, works at the cutting edge of methodology development and can consult and collaborate with faculty across Penn State campuses and departments to support researchers using quantitative methods in social and behavioral sciences.??

We have an outstanding Survey Research Center (SRC) that supports a lot of primary data collection including surveys, focus groups, and interviews. They also support mobile data collection (or EMA) through the TRACE program. If a faculty member wants to carry out a survey study, SRC has the expertise they need. Another important faculty resource is the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (RDC) that provides researchers access to an amazing pool of data from federal agencies.??

The one area that we are working to make more robust is the support for data intensive social sciences with computational support for people who are working with large, confidential data sets. The Evidence to Impact Collaborative (EIC) has some resources that enable support for people working with claims, data, and other administrative data sources.??

Q: What about specific facilities or equipment that set SSRI apart??

A: What makes Penn State unique is the history of work that my predecessors put into growing social sciences here on campus. We’re able to do what we do here and bundle a lot of the core services that are often disconnected at other universities. I think it creates efficiency and helps us tailor those resources to researchers’ needs. It can be a challenge for social scientists to be heard. We're trying to center those research areas and questions while clearly working in collaboration with others.?

One unique facility that is a part of SSRI is the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center (SLEIC). SLEIC is dedicated to fostering cutting edge research in the social, behavioral where imaging plays a central role. The SLEIC provides the Penn State research community with instrumentation and support for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electrophysiology (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies of both kids and adults.??

What makes Penn State unique is the history of work that my predecessors put into growing social sciences here on campus.

Q: Tell us a little bit about what you think are the greatest areas of long-term impact that your institute has contributed??

A: One thing the Institute has been able to do is support recruitment of faculty who join the university as part of cluster. This strategy to create a critical mass of people working in a priority area enables fast progress. The notable parts of SSRI are the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network and the Consortium for Substance Use and Addiction. Each tackles important and challenging problems that benefit from the collaboration of faculty from multiple disciplines.?

The research community increasingly recognizes the importance of “translation”. Meaning we want to ensure our work may ultimately translate into impact informing policies or strategies that, if adopted, can improve people's lives. SSRI support of social and behavioral sciences, including research that engages community, is key to ensuring long term impact. And that's very aligned with the work that I've done throughout my career working with partners from the community, agencies, and policymakers.?

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Q: Now to the future – what do you think your institute’s greatest impact will be in the future??

A: Community impact. What is the community? What is the policy landscape where people are living and how do those policies and practices shape what we see as the outcomes? And then how can we learn from it? Inequality and how that impacts people's lives and how we can understand the sources and the solutions to the structures around people.??

One key example: the impact of climate change on people and their lives. We recruited several faculty this year to enhance a work group on what I call the people part of climate change. Social and behavioral scholars ask and answer different questions than climate scientists do and by bridging different disciplines we will increase the impact of research.??

Q: Do students have the opportunity to take part in research at SSRI??

A: SSRI supports several graduate training programs supported through federally funded training grants. In addition, the faculty supported by SSRI often work with undergraduate and graduate students in their research labs.? Our Survey Research Center (SRC) hires many students to help collect survey data. It’s a fantastic opportunity to get students involved in a research study and gain data collection experience while supporting SRC’s research needs.???

I'm just going to continue to sing the song of appreciation for the institute model. We help make connections. We can provide students with research opportunities and become involved earlier in their college career. Experience begins in college for students. The institutes are involved in undergraduate and graduate training – that's growing, and I think, it is critical.? When I think about the students I’ve influenced in my career, and those that have worked with my group, these students have a chance to work with professionals who often have a substantial influence on their career paths. Every now and then, I get an email from someone updating me on their life, and it’s amazing to hear about their careers and the important work they are doing.??

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Q: What do you like to do outside of your work at the University??

A: I like to hike, ride my bicycle and travel. I also have two adult children who I love to visit. I’ve enjoyed being here at Penn State because it is a beautiful place to be outdoors.???

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