Dr. Kotchen is Professor of Epidemiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She has a long standing interest in community-based interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and adults. While on the faculty at the University of Kentucky , Dr. Kotchen provided leadership to a highly successful research and demonstration project in several rural counties in eastern Kentucky that had high levels of cardiovascular disease risk factors and death rates from cardiovascular causes. The project developed multiple educational interventions involving community partners and that were conducted in the schools, churches, and community organizations. The two counties receiving the five-year intervention activities had substantial and statistically significant decreases in mortality from cardiovascular disease following the implementation of interventions.. The control county, which had similar rates of cardiovascular disease at baseline and which did not receive the interventions, had no changes in death rates due to cardiovascular disease. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). While on the faculty of West Virginia University , Dr. Kotchen was involved in the planning and implementing of a successful health education intervention in several rural schools. She also served as West Virginia Deputy State Health Director for several years and worked closely with rural counties to assess their health needs and to address these needs. Since joining the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Kotchen has been involved with several NIH -funded studies designed to improve blood pressure control among high-risk African Americans in Milwaukee.