Addie Weaver, Ph.D., MSW, receives 2020 Oscar Stern Scholar Award for project on treating postpartum depression in rural women

Despite being at high risk for postpartum depression, low-income, rural women often do not receive the treatment they need. With support from her 2020 Oscar Stern Scholar Award, Addie Weaver, Ph.D., MSW, hopes to address this public health concern through a project identifying ways to broaden access to mental health care for these underserved populations. Her Stern Award will provide two years of funding: $50,000 a year for two years, totaling $100,000, to support her research.  

Dr. Weaver’s project focuses specifically on women who have postpartum depression and receive services from Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics in rural Michigan. Partnering with a WIC clinic in Lenawee County, Michigan, she is tailoring a free online, evidence-based treatment for women who are already connected with WIC clinics. She will then evaluate the treatment’s impact on the women’s depression. If the results are promising, this project could be the model for mental health treatment that could be made readily available in WIC clinics in rural areas across the state of Michigan.

Dr. Weaver is also interested in using epidemiologic data to better understand the prevalence and causes of mental illness in rural communities, with attention to the heterogeneity of rural populations and the potential importance of understudied subgroup differences. Ultimately, however, the goal of her research is to improve the quality of life for rural residents with mental health needs.

Addie Weaver is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work where she has been active in research since arriving at U-M in 2011 — first as a post-doctoral fellow at the James L. Curtis Research and Training Center and later as a research investigator. She received both her MSW and Ph.D. degrees in social work from the University of Pittsburgh.

The Oscar Stern Awards were established by the late Helmut F. Stern, a businessman, investor, and accomplished art collector, well known for his generous support of the humanities, public health, public policy, and the arts and sciences at the University of Michigan. His 2011 gift to endow a research award at the U-M Depression Center was inspired by and made in honor of his relative, Oscar Stern, whose brave and compassionate efforts enabled Helmut to escape Nazi Germany. Helmut and his wife, Candis, established the award with the overarching goal to transform the quality of life of those living with depression and bipolar disorders. Stern Awards promote innovative and translational high-impact research by Depression Center investigators to improve the diagnosis and treatment of depression and bipolar disorders.