Jeannette R. Ickovics, newly named as the Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, focuses her research on the interplay of complex biomedical, behavioral, social, and psychological factors that influence individual and community health.
Ickovics examines the challenges faced by those often marginalized by the health care system and by society. She is an expert on maternal and child health and community health with a focus on large-scale prevention interventions. Her community-engaged research has been funded by more than $35 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and private foundations. Ickovics has participated in numerous national and international health care initiatives, including a multi-country project to prevent chronic disease, sponsored by the Oxford Health Alliance in England, and promoting an innovative model of group prenatal care domestically and abroad to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
A graduate and honorary degree recipient of Muhlenberg College, Ickovics earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in applied social psychology from George Washington University. After completing postdoctoral training in health psychology and behavioral medicine at Yale, she joined the faculty there in 1991 as associate research scientist and lecturer in the Department of Psychology. Subsequently, Ickovics has held several appointments at the university, most recently as professor of epidemiology and public health and professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Her numerous administrative positions have included serving as founding director of the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences and of CARE: Community Alliance for Research & Engagement at the Yale School of Public Health. Since 2006, she has been the deputy director of the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.
Ickovics has contributed more than 170 articles to peer-reviewed publications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine, among other journals. She was curator of the critically-acclaimed exhibition, "Big Food: Health, Culture and the Evolution of Eating," at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History; reaching more than 150,000 visitors, the exhibition broke attendance records at the museum.
The Yale professor’s awards include appointment as Master Lecturer and the Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association as well as the Leadership in Healthcare Award from the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and the CEA Winslow Award from the Connecticut Public Health Association, its highest honor. She received a Yale University Seton Elm and Ivy Award for outstanding contributions towards improved relations between New Haven and Yale University. Ickovics is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a member of the American Psychosomatic Society and the New York Academy of Sciences. Her work on group prenatal care has been recognized as innovative by the Connecticut Technology Council, Harvard Health Acceleration Challenge (Harvard Schools of Business and Medicine), and the Hemsley Challenge at United Health Group.