Child Health Center for Learning and Development

People

  • Virginia A Rauh, ScD, MSW

    • Jane and Alan Batkin Professor of Population and Family Health at CUMC

    Dr. Rauh is the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor in Child Health and Well-Being and Vice Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health. For the past 20 years, as Deputy Director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, she has studied the developmental risks and biological mechanisms associated with exposure to toxic environmental conditions. Her landmark work, identifying persistent brain damage associated with early exposure to a widely used pesticide, contributed to major changes in public health policy, culminating in the total residential and agricultural banning of these chemicals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is the inaugural Director of the Child Health Center for Learning and Development, and Director of Trauma-Free NYC, a Columbia University-Community Partnership focused on supporting trauma-informed practice and policies in New York City. Grounded in neuroscience, she has focused on the clinical and behavioral consequences of exposure to a combination of social and physically toxic conditions, including adverse childhood experiences, the built environment (housing and community living conditions), and chemical neurotoxicants (tobacco smoke, pesticides and air pollutants). She has been principal investigator on numerous major NIH-funded research projects, including the impact of organophosphorus insecticides and secondhand smoke on child neurodevelopment and brain abnormalities (MRI, fMRI), a randomized intervention trial for low birth weight infants, a multi-site study of lifestyles in pregnancy, a study of mental health outcomes of children born to inner-city adolescent mothers, a multi-level analysis of the impact of Head Start on New York City school children, a study of the effects of ambient air pollutants on pregnant women and their children, and a study of links between race, stressors, and preterm birth. She has served on numerous national committees and expert panels for the National Institutes of Health, the Scientific Advisory Board of EPA, the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, and the national Environmental Children’s Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.

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  • Melissa S. Stockwell, MD, MPH

    • Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health
    • Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Health

    Dr. Stockwell is Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health and Felice K. Shea Professor of Pediatrics (Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) and Professor of Population and Family Health (Mailman School of Public Health). Her research, which concentrates on underserved children and adolescents, focuses on translational interventions to improve vaccinations with an emphasis on health technology and health literacy.

    Dr. Stockwell is the Medical Director of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) Immunization Registry (EzVac) and Co-Director of the Columbia University Primary Care Clinician Research Fellowship in Community Health. Additionally, she is a pediatrician in a NYP-associated community clinic. Dr. Stockwell is the Associate Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) practice-based research network. She also serves on the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Immunization Improvement Team.

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  • Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, MD

    • Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

    Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, MD, is the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University (CU) College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute and is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP)/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. He holds the the Susanne Crosby Murphy Professorship in Pediatric Neuropsychiatry and co-directs the Columbia University NICHD Autism Center of Excellence. He founded and co-directs the NIMH R25 Shaffer Scholars Program in Child Psychiatry Research within the NYP/CU/Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) child psychiatry residency. He also co-directs the NIMH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship for Translational Research in Child Psychiatry and the Whitaker Scholars Program in Developmental Neuropsychiatry at CU/NYSPI.

    An international leader in autism research, Dr. Veenstra-VanderWeele is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who uses molecular and translational neuroscience research tools in the pursuit of new interventions. His molecular neuroscience laboratory at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute focuses on genetic mouse models with changes in social or repetitive behavior. His clinical/translational research program at the NYP/CU/WCM Center for Autism and the Developing Brain studies potential treatments in autism and related genetic syndromes. 

    Dr. Veenstra-VanderWeele’s work has garnered multiple awards, including the AACAP Tarjan Award for Contributions in Developmental Disabilities and the APA Ittleson Award for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American College of Psychiatrists. He serves as an Associate Editor of Autism Research, the Journal of the International Society for Autism Research and chaired the NIH Developmental Brain Disorders Study Section from 2021-2023. In addition to his own research and clinical work, he is dedicated to helping train and develop the next generation of child psychiatrists and scientists who can generate an improved understanding of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders and deliver new treatments to the clinic.

  • Jordan Scott Orange, MD, PHD

    • Reuben S. Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics
    • Chair, Department of Pediatrics

    Jordan is the Reuben S. Carpentier Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University and the Physician-in-Chief at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.  Previously, he was Professor, Vice Chair for Research, and Chief of Immunology/Allergy/Rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine and Director of the Center for Human Immunobiology at Texas Children’s Hospital.  Before that, he was the Jeffrey Modell Endowed Chair of Immunology Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).  Jordan completed baccalaureate and MD/PhD degrees at Brown University, pediatric residency at CHOP, Allergy/Immunology/Rheumatology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.  He was the recipient of the 2009 Judson Daland Prize from the American Philosophical Society, the 2017 E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research the 2018 O’Donnell Prize in Medicine from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science, and the 2019 Distinguished Scientist Award from the AAAAI. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2010), The American Pediatric Society (2016) and the National Academy of Medicine (2018). Jordan’s research focuses on the cell biology of intercellular immune interactions, the immunological synapse, novel causes of immune diseases and mechanistic insights gained from inborn errors of immunity. Jordan has been continuously funded by the NIH and he has over 350 publications.