Photo by Amara Cohen
Kirsten Davison, director of a major research program on parenting and child health outcomes in underserved families and an expert on family-centered interventions for obesity prevention, has been named as Donahue and DiFelice Professor at the Boston College School of Social Work.
Davison, who has also assumed the position of associate dean for research at Ď㽶ĐăSSW, succeeds Ruth McRoy, inaugural holder of the Donahue and DiFelice Professorship, who retired at the end of the 2018-19 academic year and is now a professor emerita at the school.
Prior to joining the Ď㽶ĐăSSW faculty, Davison spent eight years at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she was an associate professor and director of the school’s Public Health Nutrition doctoral program. She also has been on the faculty at the University of Albany School of Public Health following doctoral and postdoctoral training at Penn State University’s Human Development and Family Studies program.
“Kirsten Davison’s scholarship, teaching, and service are focused on vulnerable children from a family and human development perspective,” said Ď㽶ĐăSSW Dean Gautam Yadama. “She has challenged researchers and practitioners to broaden their framework to include the entire family—particularly mothers and fathers—in supporting the healthy development of children who are at risk of obesity. Dr. Davison’s addition will expand and deepen Ď㽶ĐăSSW’s response to vulnerable children who are low-income and from communities of color here in Boston.”
A native of New Zealand, where she earned her bachelor’s degree at Otago University, Davison said her move to Ď㽶Đă came at “a turning point” in her career.  “The opportunity to be in a leadership position at a major institution was appealing. I also had a very favorable impression of Ď㽶Đă: Its alumni seem very enthusiastic, committed, and connected; and in conversations with people who worked at Ď㽶Đă, I heard a lot of happiness and contentment.”
Davison studies family- and community-level factors that influence children’s lifestyle behaviors—such as diet, physical activity, and screen-based activities—and their risk of obesity. More recently, her work has focused on the development and evaluation of family-centered interventions for obesity prevention in low-income children, including children enrolled in WIC (Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program) and Head Start. Supported by three National Institutes of Health grants, she is leading a series of projects: testing the efficacy of a childhood obesity preventative intervention for low-income families; examining links between sleep and growth in children from birth to two years; and assessing the role of fathers in childhood obesity prevention.
These research interests are well suited to a social work context, Davison believes.
“Basically, I look at why parents parent the way they do, especially those in low-income families, and the many forces that influence their decision-making. It’s important that those most affected by health-related problems like child obesity have a seat at the table and the ability to offer their perspectives and participate in devising solutions.”
“I’m used to moving around disciplines, having started in developmental psychology and then going into public health, health behavior, and nutrition,” she said. “So, in a way, coming to the School of Social Work brings my work back to its roots. I see public health and social work as intertwined, where social work has a very strong focus on social justice.”
A primary emphasis of her research initiatives, she explained, “is the need to consider the family unit as a whole and address factors beyond the family, including social networks, community and organizational factors, and parents’ own childhood histories that impact parent-child interactions around healthy lifestyles.
“Basically, I look at why parents parent the way they do, especially those in low-income families, and the many forces that influence their decision-making. It’s important that those most affected by health-related problems like child obesity have a seat at the table and the ability to offer their perspectives and participate in devising solutions.”
Unfortunately, Davison added, many programs and initiatives intended to aid families wind up being burdensome, placing demands on parents or children that “take them out of their daily living routine.
“The solution is not so much to create new approaches or programs,” she said, “but to improve those that are already in place.” Â
In a recent article published in the journal Obesity, Davison and her co-authors proposed strategies to reach and engage fathers—who have been overlooked to date—in the prevention of obesity in young children through five existing programs including prenatal care, pediatrics, WIC, Early Head Start, and home visiting.
In conjunction with her research, Davison has led transdisciplinary postgraduate training programs, including the Public Health Nutrition doctoral program and the Cancer Prevention and Control fellowship program at Harvard, and has an extensive history mentoring undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. She looks forward to putting this experience to work in her support of faculty as associate dean for research.
“Social work has not had the obvious access to large public funding as have other professions, but there are strategies to frame the research so that it will attract the support of NIH and similar organizations,” she said. “Ď㽶ĐăSSW has a lot of strong young researchers on its faculty, and there is a great capacity for growth in external funding.”
Funding for the Donahue and DiFelice Professorship was established in 2008 through gifts from John F. and Rhodora J. Donahue, Boston College parents, and Mary A. and Emilio DiFelice. The professorship is awarded to a faculty member engaged in research and teaching in the area of the Catholic family.
–Sean Smith, University Communications | November 2019