Our Scientists

Dr. Doug Easterling Department Chair, Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Born: 1956 Wyandotte, Wayne County, Michigan/USA
Career:
2005- present Department Chair, Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University Health Sciences. 2003 – present Associate Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Section on Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest University Health Sciences. 1999-2003 Director, Division for Community-Based Evaluation, Center for the Study of Social Issues, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 1992-1999 Director of Research and Evaluation, The Colorado Trust, Denver. 1987-1992 Research Assistant, Wharton Center for Risk and Decision Processes, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 1982-1987 Assistant Researcher, Departments of Psychology and Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 1980 Principal Research Associate, Lazar Management Group, Washington, DC. 1978-1979 VISTA Volunteer, Metropolitan Development Council, Tacoma, WA.
Education:
1978 B.A., Carleton College, (Psychology and Mathematics) 1983 M.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (Quantitative Psychology) 1993 Ph.D., Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, (Public Policy and Management)
Experience and research:
1982 - 1987 Researcher, “Psychological Responses to Cancer Chemotherapy,” National Cancer Institute grant (#CA26235) to Howard Leventhal. 1984 – 1987 Researcher, “Utilization of Medical Care Among the Elderly,” National Institute on Aging grant (#AG03501) to Howard Leventhal. 1987 – 1995 Researcher, “Yucca Mountain Socioeconomic Impact Studies,” State of Nevada, Nuclear Waste Project Office. 1998 - 1999 Scientific Advisory Committee, Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. 1998 - 2005 Faculty Member, Healthy Communities Fellowship Program, The Health Forum, San Francisco, CA. 1998 - 2000 Executive Committee, Grant makers Evaluation Network. 1999 - 2003 CENTERED Blue Ribbon Panel on Evaluation (CDC Project SIP25PR, coordinated by the University of South Carolina). 2000 - 2001 Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of the ‘Race Will Not Divide Us’ Initiative,” Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. 2000 – 2001 Academic Partner, “Local Analysis of the Social Capital Benchmark Survey,” Winston-Salem Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro 2000 - 2002 Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) in Winston-Salem,” National Institute of Justice (#2000IJCX0048). 2000 - present Principal Consultant, “Design and Facilitation of the ECHO Council” (a 45-person collaborative convened to build social capital community-wide), Winston-Salem Foundation. 2001 Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of the Guilford (NC) School Health Alliance,” Wesley Long – Moses Cone Community Health Foundation, Greensboro, NC. 2001- 2003 Co-Investigator, “Blueprint for Sustaining SACSI,” National Institute of Justice (Lynn Harvey, PI). 2002 - 2003 Consultant, Warner Foundation, Durham, NC. Strategic consultation to assist the foundation in clarifying its mission and developing a theory of change to guide its grant making. 2002 - 2006 Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of the Discovery Alliance,” W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 2002 - present Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Winston-Salem, NC. Strategic consultation to assist the foundation in clarifying the theory underlying its grants programs and to establish an evaluation system for measuring the impact of its grantmaking. 2003 Co-Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of Free to Grow,” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Mark Wolfson, PI). 2003 - present Advisory Committee, ENRICH Wellness Initiative, Duke Endowment. 2003 - present Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Asheville, NC. Consultation on restructuring the foundation’s grant making structure and evaluation strategy. 2004 - 2007 Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Greensboro, NC. Consultation on the redesign of the foundation’s evaluation approach. 2005 – 2007 Evaluation Consultant, “Impact of CCF on Organizational Capacity,” DHHS Agency for Children and Families (sub-contract with Winston-Salem State University). 2006 - present Principal Consultant, “Social Capital Learning Circle,” consortium of 15 foundations from throughout the U.S. 2006 - 2007 Principal Investigator, “Analysis of 2006 Social Capital Survey Data,” Winston-Salem Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. 2007 Principal Investigator, “Social Capital in Kansas,” Kansas Health Institute.
Languages:
English
Recent publications:
1. Easterling, D., Gallagher, K., & Lodwick, D. (eds.) (2003). Promoting health at the community level. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2. Easterling, D. (2003). What have we learned about community partnerships? Medical Care Research and Review, 60 (4 supplement), 161S-166S. 3. Conner, R., Easterling, D., Tanjasiri, S.P. & Adams-Berger, J. (2003). Using community indicators to track and to improve health and quality of life. In D. Easterling, K. Gallagher & D. Lodwick (eds), Promoting Health at the Community Level. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 4. Easterling, D. (2001). Fear and loathing of Las Vegas: Will a nuclear waste repository contaminate the imagery of nearby places? In P. Slovic, J. Flynn, and H. Kunreuther (Eds.), Risk, media, and stigma. London: Earthscan Publications, Ltd. 5. Easterling, D. (2000). Using outcome evaluation to guide grantmaking: Theory, reality and possibilities. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29, 330-334. 6. Gowda, M.V.R. and Easterling, D. (2000). Voluntary siting and equity: The MRS facility experience in Native America. Risk Analysis, 20, 917-930. 7. Gowda, M.V.R. and Easterling, D (1998). Nuclear waste and Native America: The MRS siting experience. Risk: Health, Safety & Environment, 9, 229-258. 8. Easterling, D. (1997). The vulnerability of the Nevada visitor economy to a repository at Yucca Mountain. Risk Analysis, 17, 635-647. 9. Kunreuther, H. and Easterling, D. (1996). The role of compensation in siting hazardous facilities. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 15, 601-622. 10. Leventhal, E.A., Easterling, D., Leventhal, H., and Cameron, L. (1995). Conservation of energy, uncertainty reduction, and swift utilization of care among the elderly: Study II. Medical Care, 33, 988-1000. 11. Easterling, D. and Kunreuther, H. (1995), The dilemma of siting a nuclear waste repository (Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers). 12. Flynn, J., Chalmers, J., Easterling, D., Kasperson, R., Kunreuther, H., Mertz, C.K., Mushkatel, A., Pijawka, A.D., and Slovic, P. (1995), One hundred centuries of solitude: The failure of America's high-level radioactive waste policy and recommendations for a new direction (Boulder, CO: Westview). 13. Leventhal, E.A., Leventhal, H., Schaefer, P., and Easterling, D. (1993). Conservation of energy, uncertainty reduction, and swift utilization of medical care among the elderly. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 48, 78-86. 14. Easterling, D.V. and Kunreuther, H. (1993). The vulnerability of the convention industry to a high-level nuclear waste repository. In R.E. Dunlap, M.E. Kraft, and E.A. Rosa (Eds.), Public opinion and nuclear waste. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 15. Kunreuther, H. and Easterling, D. (1992). Gaining acceptance for noxious facilities with economic incentives. In D.W. Bromley and K. Segerson (Eds.), The social response to environmental risk: Policy formulation in an age of uncertainty. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 16. Easterling, D.V. (1992). Fair rules for siting a high-level nuclear waste repository. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 11, 442-475. 17. Easterling, D.V., Kunreuther, H., and Morwitz, V. (1991). Forecasting behavioral response to a repository from stated intent data. High Level Radioactive Waste Management: Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers. 18. Gregory, R., Kunreuther, H., Easterling, D., and Richards, K. (1991). Incentives policies to site hazardous facilities. Risk Analysis, 11, 667-675. 19. Ward, S.E., Leventhal, H., Easterling, D.V., Luchterhand, C., and Love, R.R. (1991). The effect of social support on esteem and communication in patients receiving chemotherapy. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 9, 95-116. 20. Kunreuther, H., and Easterling, D. (1990). Are risk-benefit tradeoffs possible in siting hazardous facilities. American Economic Review: AEA Papers and Proceedings, 80 (May), 252-256. 21. Kunreuther, H., Easterling, D., Desvousges, W., and Slovic, P. (1990). Public attitudes toward siting a high level nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Risk Analysis, 10, 469-484. 22. Easterling, D.V. and Kunreuther, H. (1990). Public attitudes toward a high-level nuclear waste repository: Implications on the prospects of successful siting. High Level Radioactive Waste Management: Proceedings of the First Annual Conference. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers. 23. Easterling, D.V. and Leventhal, H. (1989). The contribution of concrete cognition to emotion: Neutral symptoms as elicitors of worry about cancer. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 787-796. 24. Sager, M.A., Easterling, D.V., Kindig, D.A., and Anderson, O.W. (1989). Changes in location of death following Medicare's Prospective Payment System: A national study. New England Journal of Medicine, 320, 433-439. 25. Sager, M..A., Leventhal, E.A., and Easterling, D.V. (1987). The impact of Medicare's prospective payment system on Wisconsin nursing homes. Journal of American Medical Association, 257, 1762-1766. 26. Easterling, D.V. (1987). Using the Generalized Euclidean Model to study ideolog¬ical shifts in the U.S. Senate. In F.W. Young and R.M. Hamer, Multidi¬mensional scaling: History, theory, and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.