Faculty Directory
Summer Sherburne Hawkins
Associate Professor
Summer Sherburne Hawkins
Ph.D.
Contact
McGuinn Hall 210
Telephone: 617-552-0945
Email: summer.hawkins@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Vassar College
- M.S., Drexel University
- Ph.D., University of London
Research Interests
Social Epidemiology; Policy Evaluation; Health Disparities; Tobacco Use; Infant Feeding
Expertise
- Disparities
- Maternal and Child Health
- Social Service Policies and Practice Effectiveness
In the News
Boston College Magazine: Where there's smoke
National Institutes of Health: Do cigarette taxes and smoke-free legislation reduce teen smoking?
Profile
Associate Professor Summer Sherburne Hawkins, PhD, MS, joined the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) faculty in 2012. She is a social epidemiologist with an interest in addressing policy-relevant research questions in women’s and children’s health. Her research examines the impact of policies on health disparities in parents and children, particularly using methodology that integrates epidemiology and economics. Dr. Hawkins has published on the topics of parental and adolescent tobacco use, infant feeding practices, and childhood obesity as well as the impact of state and local policies on disparities in these health behaviors and outcomes. In July 2019, she was awarded a Public Policy Research Award from the American Lung Association to examine the impact of tobacco control and air quality policies on disparities in prenatal smoking and birth outcomes.
A more recent area of Dr. Hawkins’ research focuses on the role of the Affordable Care Act on the uptake of women’s preventive health services. This program of research is funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society titled, Impact of the ACA on the prevention and early detection of women’s cancers.
Dr. Hawkins is currently the Section Editor for Health Policies, Systems and Management in High-Income Countries of BMC Public Health, on the editorial board of Maternal and Child Nutrition and an active member of the University Research Council at Boston College. Prior to joining BCSSW, Dr. Hawkins was a Cohort 7 Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health from 2009-2011.
Select Publications
Hawkins SS, Ghiani M, Harper S, Baum CF, Kaufman JS. Impact of state-level changes on maternal mortality: a population-based, quasi-experimental study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2019 doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2019.09.012. PMID: 31859173.
Hawkins SS, Wylie BJ, Hacker MR. Use of electronic nicotine delivery systems and cigarettes during pregnancy. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2020;58(1):122-128. PMID: 31862099.
Hawkins SS, Baum CF. Associations of tobacco control policies and birth defects. Preventive Medicine 2019; 127:105791. PMID: 31398414.
Hawkins SS, Baum CF. The downstream effects of state tobacco control policies on birth outcomes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2019; 205:107634. PMID: 31669802.
Haakenstad A, Hawkins SS, Pace LE, Cohen J. Rural-urban disparities in colonoscopies after the elimination of patient cost-sharing by the Affordable Care Act. Preventive Medicine 2019; 129:105877. PMID: 31669176.
Ghiani M, Hawkins SS, Baum CF. Gun laws and suicide. American Journal of Epidemiology 2019;188(7):1254-1261. PMID: 30874719.
Hawkins SS, Bach N, Baum CF. Impact of tobacco control policies on adolescent smokeless tobacco and cigar use: a difference-in-differences approach. BMC Public Health 2018;18(1):154. PMID: 29444658.
Hawkins SS, Noble A, Baum CF. Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Disparities in Breastfeeding: The Case of Maine. American Journal of Public Health 2017;107(7):1119-1121. PMID: 2850483.
Hawkins SS, Baum CF. Invited commentary: An interdisciplinary approach for policy evaluation. American Journal of Epidemiology 2016;183(6):539-541. PMID: 26946396.