Research Scientist
Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Jennifer Ames, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the Division of Research (DOR), Kaiser Permanente Northern California and the assistant director of the Kaiser Permanente Autism Research Program. She specializes in the epidemiology of autism, health services research in autistic children and adults, and children’s environmental health. The goals of her research are two-fold: 1) The first goal seeks to improve the delivery of health services to autistic people across the lifespan. She currently leads studies focused on enhancing the transition from pediatric to adult care for autistic youth and improving access to reproductive health care services in autistic youth and adults. 2) The second goal of her research, funded by a K99/R00 pathway to independence award from NIEHS, is to understand how genetic and environmental factors may interact during the prenatal period and influence autistic traits and health outcomes.
Dr. Ames is also a co-investigator on the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Study and on the NIH Autism Center of Excellence: Combining advances in Genomics and Environmental science to accelerate Actionable Research and practice in ASD (GEARs) Network. Dr. Ames holds a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California Berkeley, a master’s of science in environmental health from the Boston University School of Public Health, and a bachelor’s in history and science from Harvard University.