University of Pennsylvania
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program
3641 Locust Walk #308
Philadelphia,
PA
USA
19104
Biographical Sketch:
Alison Buttenheim is a public health researcher and social demographer who studies child health and wellbeing. Dr. Buttenheim investigates the role of parental attitudes, beliefs, and decision-making in determining child health, focusing on two outcomes in particular: vaccine refusal and childhood obesity. Using the techniques and frameworks of experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and social networks analysis, she examines how diverse forces ranging from the media and the internet to peer norms and altruism shape the decision architecture that parents inhabit when making choices about their children’s health. She received her Ph.D. in Public Health at UCLA in 2007. She also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in history from Yale University.