Erica P. Gunderson , PhD, MS, MPH

erica.gunderson@kp.org

Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, MPH, RD, is a senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and a professor of Health Systems Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. She is a reproductive life-course epidemiologist studying the lasting effects of pregnancy outcomes and lactation on future metabolic and cardiovascular health outcomes in women and the impact of intrauterine exposures and early postnatal dietary intake on growth and health of their children. Her prospective, longitudinal studies spanning the child-bearing years are among the first to distinguish antecedent risk factor influences, i.e., preconception and gestational cardiometabolic risk, on adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) and lactation as contributors to future cardiometabolic health outcomes in women, including type 2 diabetes. Her research studies preserve the temporal sequence of these exposures, equivalence of preconception risk, and account for APOs to strengthens the evidence basis for causal inferences related to lactation lowering risk of progression to T2D and CVD in women. A second research focus characterizes early pregnancy blood pressure patterns that predict hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and longer-term CVD outcomes, and the joint roles of chronic hypertension and preeclampsia as contributing to racial and ethnic disparities in maternal morbidity.

Dr. Gunderson recruited patients into the Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes after Gestational Diabetes (SWIFT), a diverse, prospective cohort of 1,033 women with gestational diabetes (75% minority: Asian, Black, Hispanic) recruited during pregnancy (2008-2011) who consented to 3 in-person research exams, each including 2-h 75 g OGTTs from early postpartum through 2 years post-delivery to identify predictors of T2D. The SWIFT Study continues in ongoing follow up to the present via Kaiser Permanente electronic health records for clinical diagnoses of T2D. Dr. Gunderson is a co-investigator on the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, and led two R01 ancillary studies to investigate risk factors changes during the reproductive life-course, including the preconception, pregnancy and post-pregnancy periods, and their influence on the progression to T2D in young Black and White women, and their future risk of cardiovascular disease.

In 2020-21, Dr. Gunderson was appointed a member of the Organizing Committees for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Workshop on Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation: Exploring New Evidence, and the Workshop on Approaches to Assessing Intake of Food and Dietary Supplements in Pregnant Women and Children 2 to 11 Years of Age. In 2022, she received the Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red Award for the Best Scientific Article Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Women from the American Heart Association in 2022. Dr. Gunderson received the Agnes Higgins Award in Maternal-Fetal Nutrition from The March of Dimes in 2023. She has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed original research papers and reviews on the preconception, pregnancy and lactation continuum and its lasting impact on longer-term cardiometabolic outcomes in women and their children. Dr. Gunderson earned her BS in Biological Sciences at Stanford University, and her MPH and MS in Public Health/Nutritional Sciences and PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley, with the distinction of receiving the Warren Winkelstein Award for Graduate Studies in Epidemiology.

Current Positions

Research Scientist III, Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Professor, Department of Health Systems Science, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Section Affiliations

Primary Research Interests

Life course epidemiology of obesity and cardiometabolic disease in women and children
Links between the pregnancy-lactation continuum and women’s health
Early prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes for CVD risk reduction
Fetal life exposures and early postnatal behaviors for prevention of child obesity and metabolic disease
Prospective, longitudinal studies of diverse race and ethnic groups of women across the childbearing years

Related Websites

Studies

Targeted metabolomics for early pregnancy prediction of gestational diabetes mellitus

This study will apply a targeted metabolomics approach to the prediction of gestational diabetes from a single blood sample collected in the first trimester of pregnancy and stored for the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health pregnancy cohort study, which recruited 24,000 pregnant participants during early pregnancy through delivery within Kaiser Permanente Northern California. This large racially and ethnically diverse pregnancy cohort, with stored biospecimens, and clinical data and perinatal health outcomes from electronic health records, provides an excellent opportunity to conduct a nested case-control study among women without prior diabetes to identify a metabolite profile predicting subsequent gestational diabetes diagnosis during mid-gestation. This study will involve a specialized targeted metabolomics approach that can reveal risk of gestational diabetes significantly sooner than conventional tests.