About
Dr. Lia Fernald, PhD, MBA, holds the Brian and Jennifer Maxwell Endowed Chair in Public Health, and is a Professor in Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Fernald has been working in the field of public health for over 20 years focusing specifically on infants and children living in poverty, with the overarching goal of improving lives of vulnerable children through systemic, strategic, and effective interventions. Dr. Fernald has written over 200 papers using rigorous methodological approaches to design and examine integrated interventions to address inequalities, health disparities and child development outcomes. She is a global expert on the effects of community mobilization, conditional cash transfer programs, and nutrition programs on infant, child, and family health and developmental outcomes.
Awards
- Board Member, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2024-present
- Member, Advisory Group, California Department of Public Health Strategic Plan, 2024
- Brian and Jennifer Maxwell Endowed Chair in Public Health, 2020-present
- Fellow, Center for Global Development, 2019-present
- Teaching Excellence Award, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 2016-2024
Relevant Publications
- Fernald LCH, Gertler PJ, Neufeld LM. (2008) Role of cash in conditional cash transfer programmes for child health, growth, and development: an analysis of Mexico's Oportunidades. The Lancet. Mar 8;371(9615):828-37.
- Black MM, Walker SP, Fernald LCH, et al. Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course. Lancet. 2017 Jan 7;389:77-90.
- Galasso E, Weber AM, Stewart CP, Ratsifandrihamanana L, Fernald LCH. (2019) Effects of nutritional supplementation and home visiting on growth and development in young children in Madagascar: a cluster- randomised controlled trial. Lancet Global Health. Sep;7(9):e1257-e1268.