Population & Family Health

Dr. Linda Cushman's 20 years at Mailman have culminated in an award-winning teaching approach: "Students learn best by doing and having an active role in their own learning. We present the concepts, ideas and skills, and then give them a route to practice that."

Dr. Cushman's philosophy is a key part of her own research, which involves evaluating health programs domestically and abroad, including those at the Children's Health Fund in New York, the Harlem Health Promotion Center, Harlem Children's Zone, and an interdepartmental program at Columbia University Medical Center promoting research to understand and reduce health disparities.

In addition, Dr. Cushman serves as principal investigator for the Program for Families Affected by AIDS in La Romana, and has recently completed a seven-year collaboration with Pro Familia, the Dominican Republic's largest family planning non-governmental organization.

Dr. Cushman says: "Obtaining skills in research design, data collection, and analysis — combined with cultural competence — can make the difference between a study that is useful to a program or community and one that is not. We want our students to have the capacity to apply their research skills in a way that actually contributes to reducing health disparities and improving health outcomes."