Celebrating Lisa Berkman’s 18 years of leadership at the ‘Pop Center’
The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (Pop Center) recently honored former longtime director Lisa Berkman with a daylong series of events. Colleagues, collaborators, and former trainees traveled from across the country and abroad to gather in Cambridge for the Sept. 17 celebration of Berkman’s leadership, research, and commitment to mentorship.
Berkman, Thomas D. Cabot Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is an internationally recognized social epidemiologist whose work focuses on how social factors and policies affect health outcomes. She led the Center from 2007 until the end of 2025 and remains co-principal investigator of its flagship NIH-funded project, Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa.
The celebration began with a research presentation, part of the Pop Center’s Social Demography Seminar Series. Maria Glymour, chair and professor of epidemiology at Boston University and a former mentee and longtime collaborator of Berkman’s, paid tribute to Berkman before sharing findings from her research on dementia.
Later in the day, former Pop Center postdoctoral fellows joined current trainees for a networking mixer, and Berkman’s colleagues, students, and friends joined the celebration at an open house.
The day’s events concluded with a dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club. Rita Hamad, professor of social epidemiology and public policy at Harvard Chan School and the current Pop Center director, kicked off the evening’s remarks and tributes with her own reflections.
Hamad said that she first encountered Berkman’s work as a medical student. “Her textbook Social Epidemiology was my north star, and since the outset that work has pushed me to think about systems and structures as drivers of population well-being,” she said.
Erika Sabbath, ScD ’12, an associate professor at Boston College School of Social Work, had Berkman as an advisor for her master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral work, “but ‘advisor’ is an inadequate word to capture the breadth of our scientific and personal relationship,” she said. “Almost every professional decision or crossroads in my career has been worked out on those two leather chairs in her office.”
The event closed with a surprise video tribute prepared by Claudette Agustin, Berkman’s longtime faculty assistant, which featured messages from Berkman’s colleagues around the world who were unable to attend.
Berkman said, “I was so honored to see all my former fellows and students as well as all my colleagues turn out for this. Their words meant so much to me. In this time of struggle for integrity in public health, it so important to see the next generations stand up to move us all forward.”
The celebration also launched an effort to establish a fund in Berkman’s name, with proceeds supporting the enhancement of Pop Center training programs.
