Katherine Ahrens, PhD

Dr. Katherine (Kate) Ahrens is an epidemiologist and associate research professor in the Public Health Program at the USM Muskie School of Public Service. Her research focuses on maternal and child health. She joined the Muskie School after serving as a health scientist in the Office of Population Affairs, the federal office that administers the Title X Family Planning Program. Before that, she was a senior service fellow at the National Center for Health Statistics, where she conducted analyses using national datasets. Her current research involves studying the health and healthcare use of women postpartum, the impact of paid family leave policies on infant health, and the epidemiology of pregnant women and children affected by opioid use disorder.  She is also the co-investigator from Maine for the Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network and a research investigator at the Maine Rural Health Research Center. Dr. Ahrens teaches courses on statistics and applied data analysis.