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The Milbank Memorial Fund is a private foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
November 6, 2026
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Mary Louise Gilburg
Hayley Piazza
Sep 22, 2026
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The Milbank Quarterly was pleased to present its Early Career Award in Population Health to Catherine K. Ettman, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, at the 2026 Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) Conference in September.
Ettman’s work explores population mental health, factors that shape use of mental health and health services, and policies across sectors that can improve health. She is the co-editor of Urban Health (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Migration and Health (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Ettman received her PhD in Health Services Research at Brown University School of Public Health and studied public policy as an undergraduate at Princeton University.
According to Ettman, receiving the Early Career Award is a true honor and full circle moment. “IAPHS was one of the first academic conferences I attended, 10 years ago, when I was starting my path in public health,” she says. “Since then, I have learned much from colleagues, built collaborations, and expanded our work to use novel methods and data sources to address timely research questions.”
Ettman says that she shares this award with her mentors, colleagues, students, and family members who have inspired and encouraged her. “I look forward to seeing how we will build on this work in the years to come,” she says.
Past recipients of the IAPHS Milbank Quarterly Early Career Award in Population Health include Lauren Gaydosh (2025), Patricia Homan (2024), Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (2023), Merlin Chowkwanyun (2022), Atheendar Venkataramani (2021), and Dustin Duncan (2020).