Bethany Kotlar

  • Assistant Professor
  • Department of Psychology; Behavioral Science
  • Email: bethany.kotlar@uri.edu
  • Accepting Students: Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Kotlar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at URI. Dr. Kotlar received her master’s in public health, specializing in maternal and child health from Emory University. She received her PhD in Population Health Sciences from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Her work has been funded by foundation grants and the National Institute for Child Health and Development.

Note: Dr. Kotlar will be joining URI in January 2026 and accepting new graduate students for the 2026-2027 academic year.

Research

Dr. Kotlar’s research uses mixed methods to explore the health and wellbeing of
children and families, including non-nuclear and intergenerational families. She is
particularly interested in the impacts of early-life adversity on child development and how families navigate adversity to maximize resilience. Currently, Dr. Kotlar’s research focuses on the impact of prenatal exposure to maternal incarceration on child and family wellbeing through the Birth Beyond Bars Study, a birth cohort of children exposed prenatally to their mothers’ incarceration and their caregivers. The goal of the Birth Beyond Bars Study is to improve policies and programs that impact families experiencing incarceration to promote holistic health and family functioning.

Education

  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2025
  • Harvard University, PhD in Population Health Sciences, 2024
  •  Emory University, MPH in Global Health, 2015
  • Boston University, B.A.S. in Linguistics, 2012

Selected Publications

Kotlar, B., & Tiemeier, H. (2025). The quandary of high-quality evaluation in complex child welfare systems. Nature medicine, 10.1038/s41591-025-03643-5. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03643-5

Kotlar, B., Kotlar, A., Sadikova, E., Jimenez, M., Yousafzai, A., Sudo, M., Kyeong, Y., Setoh, P., Ngoh, G., Rifkin-Graboi, A., Meaney, M. J., Chen, H., Brockman, B. F. P., Goh, D. Y. T., Yap, F., Lee, Y. S., Cai, S., & Tiemeier, H. (2025). Whose sleep matters? Untangling the relationships between maternal sleep, child sleep, and maternal depressive symptoms in the first two years of life. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-025-02689-7

Kotlar, B., Yousafzai, A., Sufrin, C., Jimenez, M., & Tiemeier, H. (2025). “The system’s not getting my grandchild”: A qualitative study of caregiver relationship formation for children born to incarcerated mothers. Social Science & Medicine, 117881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117881

Kotlar, B., Dawson, K., Odayar, V., Mason, E., Tiemeier, H. (2024). “How Am I Going to Do It?” Understanding the Challenges of Assuming Care of a Child Born During their Mothers’ Incarceration. Health Equity, 8(1), 731–737.  https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2024.0098

Vitagliano, J., Shalev, T., Saunders, J. B., Mason, E., Stang, J., Shlafer, R., Kotlar, B. (2024). Forgotten Fundamentals: A Review of State Legislation on Nutrition for
Incarcerated Pregnant and Postpartum People. Journal of correctional health care, Doi: 10.1089/jchc.23.07.0063. https://doi.org/10.1089/jchc.23.07.0063

Kotlar, B., Gerson, E., Petrillo S., Langer A., Tiemeier H. (2021). The impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health: A scoping review. Reproductive Health, 18; 18(1):10. Doi: 10.1186/s12978-021-01070-6.

Kotlar, B., Kornrich, R., Deneen, M., Kenner, C., Theis, L., von Esenwein, S., Webb-
Girard, A. (2014). Meeting Incarcerated Women’s Needs for Pregnancy-Related and
Postpartum Services: Challenges and Opportunities. Perspectives on Sexual and
Reproductive Health, doi: 10.1363/47e3315