Renata Howland, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She is a core member of the Health Evaluation and Analytics Lab (HEAL), which houses New York State Medicaid data and supports research to enhance the Medicaid program and contribute to national scholarship. Dr. Howland earned her PhD and MPH in Epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
At NYU, Dr. Howland leads several studies utilizing Medicaid data to evaluate policies and programs for mothers and children. Her projects include collaborations with New York City Health and Hospitals on the Early Childhood Community Health Workers project, 3-2-1 IMPACT, and the Maternal Home program. These initiatives highlight her expertise in matching administrative datasets, linking mothers and infants, and developing maternal and child health indicators. She has also worked on several housing-related projects, including one investigating child mental health, homelessness, and the shelter system.
Before joining NYU, Dr. Howland spent seven years at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a Research Scientist. There, she developed one of the first citywide systems for monitoring severe maternal morbidity using hospital discharge data, leading to a significant citywide report, several publications, and support for a new maternal health agenda.
Dr. Howland’s work builds on a history of productive collaboration between HEAL and the NYU Furman Center. She has worked closely with Co-PI Ingrid Ellen on multiple projects, including a Policy for Action Grant examining housing subsidies’ impact on children’s health, a Russell Sage Foundation Grant on housing density and historical influenza and COVID trends, and a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant on a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) project studying health and mobility outcomes of children in RAD buildings compared to other public housing developments.
