Professor Emeritus
UIC School of Public Health, Center of Excellence in MCH
Dr. Handler is Professor Emeritus of Community Health Sciences and former Director of the Center of Excellence in MCH at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Her research and teaching career reflects her long-standing commitment to reducing inequities and improving the health of women, pregnant and postpartum persons, children, and families.
Dr. Handler has a long history of conducting evaluations of public sector maternal and women’s health programs as a way of generating information for systems and policy change. Dr. Handler is currently Director of Training of the University of Illinois’ Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence, a newly funded effort to support research, training, and community engagement to address maternal health inequities. She is also a current Board member and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Family Connects International, and Board member and Program Chair of the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston.
Finally, Dr. Handler is a nationally renowned leader in maternal and child health advocacy, policy, epidemiology, and public health system improvement, who served as a former member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM) during the Obama Administration. In addition, she was a co-founder of the Gary Task Force on Teen Pregnancy, the IL Maternal and Child Health Coalition (now EverThrive IL), and the Chicago Abortion Fund. In recognition of her many contributions to reducing inequities in maternal and infant health, she is a recipient of multiple awards, including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s 2021 Title V Lifetime Achievement Award, and also in 2021, one of six individuals across the University of Illinois system named a University Scholar. Finally, in Sept. 2025, she received the 2025 Renee Friedman-Druzinsky Health Equity Champion Award from EverThrive Illinois.