About

Dr. Jennifer Ahern is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, where she also serves as the Executive Associate Dean and Acting Associate Dean for Research. Her research focuses on examining the effects of the social and physical environment, as well as programs and policies that modify these environments, on various health outcomes including violence, substance use, mental health, and gestational health. She employs methodological approaches such as causal inference methods and semi-parametric estimation to enhance the rigor of observational research and improve public health intervention planning. Dr. Ahern's work has been supported by notable awards, including a New Innovator Award from the NIH, Office of the Director. Her research interests encompass social epidemiology, neighborhood characteristics and health, traumatic events, substance use, mental health, behavioral health, birth outcomes, and maternal health. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley, an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Human Biology from Brown University. Her contributions to the field include influential research on racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal health, the impact of community violence on maternal and infant health, and the health effects of societal changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Emergency medicine
• Demography
• Obstetrics
• Medical emergency
• Intensive care medicine

Selected publications

• Association of nonfatal overdose surveillance data with concurrent and future overdose deaths in Rhode Island

  American Journal of Epidemiology · 2026-01-26

  article

  Given substantial reporting delays in overdose deaths, state health departments increasingly use nonfatal overdose data to inform geographically targeted rapid overdose response efforts. We evaluated the extent to which nonfatal overdose events were associated with concurrent and future overdose deaths in Rhode Island. We aggregated nonfatal overdose data from emergency medical services records (2019-2023) and fatal overdose data from the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (2020-2023) in 1-, 3-, and 6-month intervals at census block group and census tract levels. Rates of fatal overdose were estimated, relative to nonfatal overdose lagged by 0-12 months, using negative binomial regression, and relative to monthly spikes in nonfatal overdose burden, using zero-inflated Poisson regression. Estimation was implemented using integrated nested Laplace approximation. Each additional nonfatal overdose event per census block group was associated with fatal overdose rates that were 48% higher (95% credible interval, 1.37-1.59) than expected in concurrent months, with smaller associations at the census tract level, in wider time intervals, and when nonfatal overdose data were lagged. Spikes in nonfatal overdose activity were associated with elevated overdose mortality in concurrent periods with fine temporal and geographic granularity, but not in longer time frames and larger geographic areas.

  PublisherDOI

• Layoffs in automobile manufacturing and mortality among remaining workers

  Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · 2026-02-09

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Layoffs may affect the health of those who lose their jobs as well as those who remain employed. Existing studies have found that remaining employed through layoffs is associated with poorer mental health in the short term, but the implications for long-term outcomes such as mortality remain unclear. METHODS: We estimated adjusted HRs for all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with layoff intensity while employed among white men, non-white men and women in a cohort of 9761 autoworkers who worked at one of three plants in Michigan between the years 1950 and 1980. We defined layoff intensity as the number of layoff months endured while employed divided by duration of employment. We identified layoff months as those in which the percentage of the workforce leaving employment was 1.96 SD above the predicted value from an autoregressive integrated moving average model. RESULTS: We found statistically significant associations among non-white men but not women or white men. Relative to layoff intensity below the first quartile, the adjusted HR associated with layoff intensity between the first and second quartiles was 1.35 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.74) for all-cause mortality among non-white men. The adjusted HRs associated with layoff intensity between the second and third quartiles were 1.85 (95% CI 1.08 to 3.17) and 2.41 (95% CI 1.00 to 5.84) for death due to all cancers and lung cancer, respectively. CONCLUSION: Layoffs endured while employed may lead to early mortality among non-white male employees. Reducing workforce instability may reduce racial disparities in health.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Adverse childhood experiences and disengagement from HIV care: a case-cohort study in Tanzania

  AIDS Research and Therapy · 2025-06-27

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have lasting, detrimental effects throughout the lifespan and may influence engagement in health care. We conducted a case-cohort study in Tanzania to estimate the association between ACEs and disengagement from HIV care 12 months after initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) among 217 adults (26 cases and 191 sub-cohort participants). Experiencing one, two, three, and four additional ACEs was significantly associated with 28% (RR a = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.44; p -value < 0.01), 64% (RR a =1.64; 95% CI: 1.22, 2.20), 110% (RR a =2.10; 95% CI: 1.35, 3.26), and 168% (RR a =2.68; 95% CI: 1.49, 4.38) increases in the risk of disengagement from HIV care, respectively. These findings call for integrated trauma-informed mental health services within HIV care to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparison of trends in CPS reports of child maltreatment and child maltreatment-related mortality across time, place and race/ethnicity

  American Journal of Epidemiology · 2025-01-30

  articleOpen access

  Child maltreatment is a persistent public health problem in the United States. Child Protective Services (CPS) data are the de facto data source for child maltreatment surveillance, despite these data's established limitations. Maltreatment-related mortality could be a complementary source of child maltreatment surveillance data. We calculated trends over time, and patterns across state and by race/ethnicity, comparing child maltreatment report rates to child maltreatment-related mortality rates, between 2005 and 2020. These two measures of maltreatment show different time trends and patterns by state and race/ethnicity. Time trends in maltreatment-related mortality decreased slightly across the study period for all racial/ethnic groups, while maltreatment report rates increased, particularly for Non-Hispanic Black children. Reports and mortality data revealed very different pictures of which states had the highest and lowest maltreatment rates, overall and by race/ethnicity. Only 14 states had report and mortality rates in the same tertile, with less alignment when stratified by race/ethnicity. Patterns in child maltreatment report rates and death rates do not align. Future work should consider additional sources of data to improve maltreatment surveillance. These findings highlight the need to identify a valid and consistent approach to capture patterns of maltreatment in the United States.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early-life Exposure to Punitive School Discipline and Midlife Cognitive Outcomes

  Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders · 2025-07-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  INTRODUCTION: Suspension and expulsion are common in US schools and disproportionately target structurally marginalized children. No research has examined whether these punitive practices may have long-term cognitive-aging implications. METHODS: In the prospective National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data (N=8021), we used confounder-adjusted linear models to investigate associations between early-life suspension or expulsion and global cognition, memory, and attention z -scores at age 50. Using interaction terms, we tested for additive scale effect modification by race, gender, and at their intersections. RESULTS: In all, 21.5% of participants had been suspended and 4.4% expelled, with Black men and women overrepresented among these early-life experiences. Punitive school discipline was associated with lower midlife global cognition, memory, and attention z -scores (eg, global cognition, suspension: : -0.21; 95% CI: -0.26, -0.15; expulsion: :-0.27; 95% CI: -0.38, -0.16). The expulsion-cognition association was stronger for men than women. DISCUSSION: Punitive school discipline-an exposure modifiable at multiple policy levels-is associated with lower cognitive performance in midlife, decades after school completion.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Patterns in Nonfatal Self-Harm Among Adolescents

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2025-04-14

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This cross-sectional study describes self-harm rates from 2005 to 2021 among US youth by age group, sex, and race and ethnicity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Correction to: Modeling Cash Plus Other Psychosocial and Structural Interventions to Prevent HIV Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in South Africa (HPTN 068)

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-12

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Trajectories of neighborhood-level overdose risk predictions for prioritization of harm reduction services: Results from the PROVIDENT study

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2025-10-17

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Relationship of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and the COVID-19 Pandemic Period With Perinatal Health in California

  Epidemiology · 2025-05-28

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: In this article, we test the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic period had stronger adverse implications for perinatal outcomes among marginalized racial and ethnic groups in California. METHODS: We used California birth certificates and hospital data from 2019 to 2021 to estimate marginal risk differences for SARS-CoV-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic period in relation to perinatal outcomes for Asian, Black, Hispanic, Multiracial, and White pregnant people using targeted maximum likelihood estimation. RESULTS: Among 849,401 deliveries, there were racial and ethnic disparities in the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection and perinatal outcomes and in the magnitudes of risk associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic. Hispanic pregnant people had the highest incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Asian and Black pregnant people had the greatest marginal risk differences for multiple outcomes, particularly outcomes already disproportionately experienced by these groups. CONCLUSIONS: Risks from SARS-CoV-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic period on perinatal outcomes were disproportionately experienced by marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Differential burdens of infection and larger risks experienced with pandemic exposures were associated with worse perinatal outcomes for Asian, Black, and Hispanic pregnant people in California compared with those for White pregnant people.

  PublisherDOI

• Adverse Childhood Experiences and Disengagement from HIV Care: A Case-Cohort Study in Tanzania

  Research Square · 2025-03-11

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant DP2HD080350

  NIH · $2.4M · 2018

Frequent coauthors

• Sandro Galea

  Boston University

  329 shared

• David Vlahov

  Yale University

  199 shared

• Melissa Tracy

  University at Albany, State University of New York

  76 shared

• Sheri A. Lippman

  University of California, San Francisco

  63 shared

• Arijit Nandi

  53 shared

• Kathleen Kahn

  South African Medical Research Council

  53 shared

• Audrey Pettifor

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  51 shared

• Heidi S. Resnick

  Medical University of South Carolina

  48 shared

Awards & honors

• New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (…