Improving Long-term Maternal and Child Health Outcomes

Alexa Freedman, PhD, is an assistant professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology and a member of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute. Her research integrates social context, placental biology and cardiovascular epidemiology to elucidate mechanisms linking prenatal exposures to maternal and offspring cardiovascular outcomes across the life course.  

What are your research interests? 

My research focuses on pregnancy as a critical window for understanding and improving reproductive and cardiovascular health across the life course. I study how social context and psychosocial stress shape adverse pregnancy outcomes and long-term maternal and child health, and how placental phenotypes can help to elucidate the underlying biological mechanisms.  

What is the ultimate goal of your research? 

The ultimate goal of my research is to advance a life-course model of cardiovascular disease prevention that begins in the prenatal period, with the goal of generating insights that can improve risk stratification and inform earlier, targeted interventions to promote cardiovascular health for both mothers and their children.  

How did you become interested in this area of research? 

I became interested in this area after learning about the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis, which suggests that the prenatal period may be a critical opportunity to promote health across the life course. My initial research examined psychosocial stressors during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes, with consideration for the placental phenotypes underlying these relationships, and I’ve since extended this work to evaluate the long-term implications for cardiovascular health.  

What types of collaborations are you engaged in across campus (and beyond)? 

Collaboration is central to my work. At Northwestern, I work with colleagues in Preventive Medicine, Cardiology and the Institute for Policy Research. Locally, I collaborate closely with investigators in Maternal and Fetal Medicine and Pathology at Endeavor Health. My research also relies on data from existing longitudinal studies, which has led to collaborations with investigators across the country and internationally.  

Where have you recently published your work? 

Our recent work focusing on cardiovascular health across the life course has been published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Heart Association, and Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.  

Who inspires you? Or who are your mentors? 

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to learn from and be inspired by an outstanding group of mentors: Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc, and Greg Miller, PhD, at Northwestern and Linda Ernst, MD, and Ann Borders, MD, at Endeavor Health. They are careful and thoughtful investigators who always make time for their trainees despite their own busy schedules. Their example continues to shape my development as an investigator and mentor.