This project documents the unique paths of MCH leaders in academe, focused on five key questions. The hope of this project is to preserve these experience and the wisdom from the field that each expert brings and also to inspire a new generation of MCH academics.
Dr. Jonathan Kotch, a board-certified medical specialist in pediatrics and preventive medicine, was on the active faculty of the Department of Maternal and Child Health for 38 years. Currently emeritus research professor, he was the Carol Remmer Angle Distinguished Professor of Children's Environmental Health until he entered phased retirement in 2013. He edited the first three editions of Maternal and Child Health: Programs, Problems, and Policy in Public Health (Jones and Bartlett) and is the recipient of the Martha May Eliot Award (APHA), the John C. MacQueen Lectureship (AMCHP), the Academic Leadership Award (ATMCH), and the Young Professional of the Year Award (MCH Section).
His expertise in health and safety in out-of-home child care has resulted in national training programs for child care health consultants across the country, and he was co-chair of the steering committee that produced the third edition of Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs.
As the Principal Investigator of one of five local sites of the Longitudinal Studies Consortium on Child Abuse and Neglect, Dr. Kotch was responsible for the North Carolina cohort, studied from birth until age 18. He was PI for all 5 sites and the coordinating center of LONGSCAN's last two years. A follow-up funded by NIDA has just concluded (2019).
Click below to listen to Jonathan Kotch's story as he responds to five questions.