Third Annual Matilda White Riley Lecture in Behavioral and Social Sciences

This lecture is the third installment of the annual Matilda White Riley Lecture in Behavioral and Social Sciences sponsored by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and organized by the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee.

The lecture, “Looking for Causes in All the Wrong Places: Upstream Social Determinants of Downstream Health Disparities”, will be presented by Dr. John B. McKinlay of the New England Research Institute. Detailed abstract and speaker information will be provided as the event draws nearer. The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is pleased to sponsor the annual lecture in the behavioral and social sciences named in honor of Matilda White Riley (1911-2004). In addition to serving as the Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Riley provided leadership across the NIH in her role as chairperson of landmark committees regarding health and behavior. She was co-chair of the joint ADAMHA and NIH Steering Committee for the Institute of Medicine's Project on Health and Behavior (1979-1982) and chair of the trans-NIH Working Group on Health and Behavior (1982-1991). In these capacities she served as the senior NIH spokesperson on the behavioral and social sciences, encouraged coordination among NIH Institutes, oversaw the production of numerous reports to the Congress on behavioral research at the NIH, provided advice to several NIH Directors, and initiated the behavioral and social sciences seminar series at the NIH. In effect, she laid the groundwork for and was the precursor to OBSSR.

The annual award honors an individual whose research has contributed to behavioral and social scientific knowledge and/or the application of such knowledge relevant to the mission of the National Institutes of Health. The recipients' research reflects Matilda Riley's commitment to research.

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