A photo of Alonzo (Ted) Folger, PhD.

Alonzo T. Folger, PhD, MS


  • Director, Evaluation & Outcomes, Mental and Behavioral Health Institute
  • Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

About

Biography

My research interests evolved from a career in public health that transformed into a passion for understanding and interrupting the intergenerational effects of poverty, trauma and other psychosocial adversities.

My research has included quasi-experimental studies to estimate home visiting effectiveness as a strategy to improve early recognition and treatment of developmental delays, to reduce pediatric unintentional injury and increase utilization of pediatric primary care.

My main focus is the epidemiology of early adversity and in particular, social and behavioral epigenomics. My research objectives are to elucidate the psychosocial and biological mechanisms that mediate the effects of early adversity on child development and behavior. Long-term, my goal is to translate this knowledge into new tools and strategies to better stratify risk and to optimize the impact of prevention programs, such as early childhood home visiting.

I have demonstrated the intergenerational effects of parental trauma on child development across multiple domains. This led to the discovery of epidemiologic associations between the early environment and offspring epigenetic differences associated with child social-emotional functioning. Next steps are to identify and characterize epigenomic predictors of elevated developmental and behavioral risk in vulnerable populations.

My research is supported by several sources, including:

  • National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01-MD013006)
  • Cincinnati Children's Trustee and ARC awards
  • The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children
  • Every Child Succeeds

I’m the director of evaluation and epidemiologic research for the Every Child Succeeds program, based at Cincinnati Children's. I’ve been a researcher for more than 14 years and began my work at Cincinnati Children's in 2012.

PhD: Epidemiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2012.

MS: Epidemiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2006.

BS: Health Science, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 2002.

Interests

Research evaluation of prevention programs; interpersonal trauma and psychosocial adversity; child development and behavioral health; social epigenomics

Research Areas

Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Child Abuse Prevention

Publications

Stronger color evasive racial ideologies predict lower likelihood of open adoption placement with same-sex couples. Reece, BJ; Jenkins, DL; Folger, AC; Shaw, DS; Neiderhiser, JM; Ganiban, JM; Leve, LD. Frontiers in Sociology. 2024; 9:1270527.

Association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and offspring epigenetic aging at 3-5 weeks. Folger, AT; Ding, L; Yolton, K; Ammerman, RT; Ji, H; Frey, JR; Bowers, KA. Annals of Epidemiology. 2024; 93:1-6.

Infant Obesity Prevention Programs for Underrepresented Mothers in a Home Visiting Program: A Qualitative and Community-Engaged Needs Assessment. Stough, CO; Rabin, J; Gates, T; Garr, K; Combs, A; Edwards, ZT; Summer, SS; Woo, JG; Folger, AT; Ammerman, RT; Nuñez, M; Berndsen, J; Clark, MJ; Frey, JR; Vaughn, LM. 2024; 44:265-279.

Comparative effectiveness of parent-child interaction therapy based on trauma exposure and attrition. Messer, EP; Eismann, EA; Folger, AT; Grass, A; Bemerer, J; Bensman, H. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 2024; 16:S97-S105.

Correlation of NICU anthropometry in extremely preterm infants with brain development and language scores at early school age. Fu, TT; Barnes-Davis, ME; Fujiwara, H; Folger, AT; Merhar, SL; Kadis, DS; Poindexter, BB; Parikh, NA. Scientific Reports. 2023; 13:15273.

Neonatal AVPR1a Methylation and In-Utero Exposure to Maternal Smoking. Nidey, N; Bowers, K; Ding, L; Ji, H; Ammerman, RT; Yolton, K; Mahabee-Gittens, EM; Folger, AT. Toxics. 2023; 11.

Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure and risk of brain abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging at term in infants born very preterm. Mahabee-Gittens, EM; Kline-Fath, BM; Harun, N; Folger, AT; He, L; Parikh, NA. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM. 2023; 5:100856.

Impact of Screening and Co-located Parent Coaching Within Pediatric Primary Care on Child Health Care Use: A Stepped Wedge Design. Eismann, EA; Zhang, B; Fenchel, M; Folger, AT; Huynh, J; Bailey, JM; Shapiro, RA. Prevention Science. 2023; 24:173-185.

Epigenome-wide association of neonatal methylation and trimester-specific prenatal PM2.5 exposure. Parikh, MN; Brokamp, C; Rasnick, E; Ding, L; Mersha, TB; Bowers, K; Folger, AT. Environmental Epidemiology. 2022; 6:e227.

Epigenome-Wide Association of Neonatal Methylation and Prenatal PM2.5 Exposure Suggests Timing-Specific Effects. Parikh, M; Brokamp, C; Rasnick, E; Ding, L; Mersha, T; Bowers, K; Folger, A. ISEE Conference Abstracts. 2022; 2022.