Dr. Blachman-Demner is a behavioral/social scientist whose primary role at NINR is as the Program Officer for the NIH ComPASS Initiative Coordinating Center (C3). She joins NINR from the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), where she coordinated NIH-wide efforts on firearm injury prevention and related violence, and served as lead on cross-cutting topics including implementation science, community-engaged research, maternal and child health, structural racism/social determinants of health, and health equity.
Dr. Blachman-Demner previously served as Social Science Analyst at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) where her research portfolio included developmental perspectives on and health impacts of violence and victimization. She was also the Coordinator of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a collaboration of 22 Federal agencies that produce or use child and family related data. Dr. Blachman-Demner’s research expertise spans clinical, community, and public health settings as well as prevention/health promotion and intervention. She has worked across the health, criminal/legal, education, and social service sectors and has a particular interest to promote the health, development and well-being of children, youth and families from historically marginalized communities.
A licensed psychologist, she received her BA from Duke University and her PhD in clinical/community psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her clinical internship at the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois, Chicago and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Family Institute/School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Dr. Blachman-Demner began her Federal career as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)/Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) policy fellow at OBSSR.