When she recruited Julie Peck to join her research lab, neuroscientist Brittany Howell had a plan.
Howell, associate professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, takes extra measures to ensure that mothers from rural areas are included in her studies, which blend biological and behavioral analysis to better understand healthy human brain development.
Her commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Howell was named the 2025 winner of the Charles Crowder Jr. award, which recognizes individual commitment and service to advancing rural health in the commonwealth. The award, presented by the Virginia Rural Health Association during its annual conference in November, recognizes people and organizations that advance rural health, from direct services to education and advocacy to research.
Peck is connected with women in communities surrounding her home in Swords Creek, a small community in Russell County. She is a peer navigator in Howell’s lab, leveraging her experience to help mothers in her area through challenges ranging from substance use disorder to mental health to finding and accessing resources.
She and other members of the research team ensure that biomedical studies are inclusive.
“We are giving a voice to groups that haven’t had a voice in research,” Howell said. “These are the families who will be impacted by this study — they aren’t just represented, they are included in the data. Decisions based on the data won’t be made without their involvement.”
By having team members embedded in the community — the lab is also a strong advocate of support groups and organizations such as Huddle Up Moms — Howell has had success in drawing from Virginia’s less-populated areas. For Peck, that means everything from enrolling moms in research studies to driving them to Roanoke for in-person visits to connecting them with resources such as meals, accommodations, and car seats for participants and siblings.
Howell also has a unique perspective.
She spent her early childhood with her mother and sister on a hobby farm in rural New Hampshire. She grew up learning the value of ingenuity, hard work, and humility.
“Dr. Howell personifies excellence, innovation, and personal commitment in advancing rural health through her leadership in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study,” said Michael Friedlander, director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Virginia Tech’s vice president of health sciences and technology.
Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, it’s the nation’s largest long-term study of early brain and child development in the United States, involving more than 7,000 families.
“As the primary investigator for the Virginia Tech arm of the program, Dr. Howell is leading one of the most inclusive efforts found within the entire study,” Friedlander said. “Her team’s trust-building is seen as a model that others can follow, and it has helped her in her role as co-chair of the Rural and Sovereign Communities workgroup for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study. She is a visionary and unafraid to challenge dogma — good for science and good for all of us.”
Howell and her team continue to recruit pregnant women in their second or third trimester from central and southwest Virginia to participate in the study.
Howell also holds an appointment as an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
The Virginia Rural Health Association, which has offices in Blacksburg, Marion, Luray, and Danville, is a nonprofit focused on improving the health of rural Virginians through education, advocacy, and fostering cooperative partnerships.
By Leigh Anne Kelley
