Jerica Berge, PhD, MPH, has been named director of the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, effective January 1, 2024. She will also hold a faculty appointment as professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the associate director of child outcomes research at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She will have secondary appointments in pediatrics and public health.
Berge is professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She holds the Carole J. Bland Endowed Chair in Research, the McKnight Distinguished Professorship, and serves as director of the Healthy Eating and Activity across the Lifespan (Heal) Center and director of the school’s Women’s Health Research Center.
She is a licensed mental health therapist and supervisor who specializes in integrated care and community-based partnerships to address family health issues. As a researcher with support from the National Institutes of Health, Berge has focused on child and family whole-person health and uses mHealth and state-of-the-science mixed-methods approaches to conduct prevention and treatment studies within primary care settings with the goal of increasing health equity for children and families from low-income and minority households. She is currently the principal investigator on five NIH grants.
“I believe that we only achieve optimal health outcomes for all people by understanding them holistically,” Berge said. “We need to understand the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal/structural factors that contribute to a person’s physical, mental, behavioral, and social health. The complexities of these determinants of whole-person health require a strong multidisciplinary approach to health care and research.”
Berge joined the University of Minnesota in 2007 in the Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. She earned her PhD in Family Social Science/Marriage and Family Therapy in 2004 from the University of Minnesota, and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ramsey Family Physicians/Regions Hospital Residency Program in integrated care. She earned her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota School of Public Heath in 2011. She also has earned credentials as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE).
Berge’s highly cited research on child and family whole-person health includes more than 200 publications, 400 presentations, and 20 book chapters. She also has extensive training in executive leadership programs, including a 2021 fellowship in the Leadership Education for Academic Development and Success (LEADS) for the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, a 2019 fellowship with the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM), and a current fellowship with the Big 10 Academic Leadership Program.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Berge join us at the CU School of Medicine and the Anschutz Medical Campus,” said Dean John J. Reilly, Jr., MD. “She brings an impressive portfolio of scholarship that is backed by a robust research program and an active clinical practice. I am confident that she will find a supportive home at our school, with many accomplished colleagues eager to work with her to improve the health of our patients, families, and communities.”
