AMANDA BOTTICELLO, PhD, MPH

“In addition to conducting data analysis [at the BRITE Center]…I helped prepare research results for dissemination at community group meetings. This experience gave me insight into the importance of community outreach and involvement in the research process and in translating empirical findings to advocacy work.”

Amanda is the outcomes and assessment research scientist at the Kessler Foundation Research Center, where she conducts epidemiological research investigating the role of social factors in the experience of disability and chronic illness.  She directs the Kessler Center’s data collection and analysis for the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems national database and related projects.  She is the principal investigator of a K99 Pathways to Independence Award (from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Development), which investigates the role of economic, social and built environment characteristics on long-term outcomes following spinal cord injury.  Through this research she has demonstrated the importance of considering the effect of place on health and well-being following acquired disability. Amanda received her master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from UCLA, where she trained in epidemiology, medical sociology, survey research, biostatistics and clinical psychology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University.