Research for the Public Good Applying the Methods of Translational Research to Improve Human Health and Well-Being

Translational research links scientific findings with programs and policies that improve human health and well-being. It includes research that evaluates interventions or policies for efficacy and effectiveness, as well as research that applies field expe

Elaine Wethington, PhD, is professor of human development and of sociology at Cornell University, Ithaca. She is a specialist in the sociology of mental health, aging, and the life course. She received her PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1987.
 
Since 2003, she has been both the codirector of the Cornell–Columbia Edward R. Roybal Center for Translational Research on Aging and the director of its Pilot Studies Core (funded by the National Institute on Aging). She is also an associate director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.
 
Dr. Wethington is the author of many papers on life stress and health, translational research on aging, health and the work–family interface, and life turning points. Currently, she is also the coprincipal investigator for Small Changes and Lasting Effects, an obesity behavioral intervention study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); coinvestigator for a cohort study of life stress and heart disease (Novel Measures of Psychosocial Stress, funded by NHLBI); and coinvestigator for Nudging Nutrition: Setting Healthier Defaults in Supermarkets and Homes (funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Challenge Program).
 
Rachel E. Dunifon, PhD, is associate professor in the department of policy analysis and management at Cornell University. She received her PhD in human development and social policy from Northwestern University in 1999 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan's Poverty Research and Training Center.
 
Her expertise is in the area of child and family policy, with a focus on how policy-relevant family factors influence child well-being. Her recent research focuses on maternal employment patterns, family functioning and child well-being, and the role of grandparents in the lives of children.
 
Dr. Dunifon is also the associate director in Cornell's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and leads an outreach program called Parenting in Context, designed to use research-based information to inform parent education programs.