Lisa Chasan-Taber

Dr. Lisa Chasan-Taber is a Professor of Epidemiology and the former Associate Dean for Research in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a reproductive epidemiologist and a nationally and internationally recognized expert on physical activity during pregnancy. Early in her career, Dr. Chasan-Taber received the American Diabetes Association Career Development Award, and she has consistently been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a principal investigator for the last 15 years with four sequential R01s. Dr. Chasan- Taber was a standing member of the NIH, Infectious Disease, Reproductive Health, Asthma, and Pulmonary Epidemiology (IRAP) Study Section and has served on multiple national review panels, as a mentor on NIH Research Career Development Awards, and as the principal investigator of Mentoring Grants designed to provide early-career faculty with successful grant-writing strategies. For more than 15 years, she has taught a class on proposal and grant writing for epidemiology graduate students, which served as the basis for her recently published textbook, “Writing Dissertation and Grant Proposals: Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics”. She has been recognized for her research through the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed to faculty by the university, and for her teaching excellence and innovative approaches to instruction through the College Outstanding Teacher Award. Chasan-Taber received her postdoctoral and doctoral training in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s in public health from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor of arts from the University of Pennsylvania.