Edith Chen PhD

Dr. Chen is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chair, Professor and Co-Director of the Foundations of Health Research Centre as well as a member of The Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.  Dr. Chen’s research seeks to understand why low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poor physical health outcomes in children, such as asthma. In particular, she focuses on examining the underlying psychological and biological mechanisms that explain these relationships. She is also interested in questions of resilience—that is, why some children who come from adversity manage to thrive and maintain good profiles of health, and also what the limits are of this resilience.  Her work also examines how having a mentor impacts on the health and well-being of low-SES mentees, in addition to determining how being a mentor has a positive effect on the mentor’s own health.

For her research, Dr. Chen has received honors including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Health Psychology, the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Donald K. Routh Early Career Award from the Society of Pediatric Psychology.