Kathleen Mullan Harris

Kathleen Mullan Harris is the James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She leads the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a landmark NIH-funded study integrating biological, genomic, and social data to examine health trajectories across the life course. Her work bridges sociology, epidemiology, genetics, and public policy, focusing on social determinants of health disparities, biosocial mechanisms, and aging processes.

Education: Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania (1988).

Research interests include:

• Social inequality and health disparities
• Biodemography and genetic influences on health
• Lifespan development and aging
• Epigenetics and environmental interactions
• Public health policy implications

Key contributions:

• Transformed Add Health into a multidisciplinary resource with 23 NIH institutes
• Pioneered studies on 'despair-driven' health behaviors and socioeconomic health gradients
• Explored racial disparities in biological aging and health outcomes

Awards: Golden Goose Award (Congressional recognition), Irene Taeuber Award, National Academy of Sciences membership, and multiple leadership roles in population health societies.

Grants/Advising: Over $100M NIH funding for Add Health; advised on federal health policies addressing life course health equity.

Labs/Teams: Directs Add Health's interdisciplinary team of 50+ researchers across 10+ disciplines, including the Add Health Epigenome Resource and Genomics Working Group.