SPHHS Launches New Center for Community Health Equity Research

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The School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) will host a campus kickoff event celebrating the launch of its new Center for Community Health Equity Research on Thursday, April 26 from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Amherst Room, Campus Center.

David Williams of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will deliver the keynote talk, “Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Health: Present Realities & Future Directions.”

Williams is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health and professor of African and African American studies and sociology at Harvard University. His internationally recognized scholarship examines the complex ways in which socioeconomic status, stress and racism affect health.

The Everyday Discrimination Scale he developed is among the most widely used measures of discrimination in health studies around the world. Elected to the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has been ranked as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.

“Dr. Williams’s path-breaking work forms the cornerstone of a large body of research in public health that documents key drivers of inequality and their pernicious effects on health,” says Susan Shaw, associate professor of community health education and director of the new center. “We are delighted that he will be in Amherst to help us launch the Center for Community Health Equity Research, which builds on these critical insights and aims to eliminate inequality in health outcomes and well-being by fostering multi-disciplinary research conducted in partnership with communities.”

Williams’ keynote will be followed by a faculty panel discussion featuring Louis Graham and Lisa Wexler, department of health promotion and policy in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and Dean Robinson, department of political science in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

The Center for Community Health Equity Research promotes multidisciplinary research investigating the social production of health disparities. Its researchers seek to address the gap between academic research and practice by leveraging rigorous studies to drive public health policies.

The event is free and open to the public. RSVPs requested here.