RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program Introduces 2011–2013 Participants

New Scholars to Investigate How Health is Influenced by Debt, Climate Change, Social Networks and Other Societal Factors

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars® program is pleased to announce the selection of 12 new scholars who will enter a two-year, postdoctoral research program to engage in interdisciplinary approaches that investigate the broad social factors affecting the nation’s health.

 “For the last decade, our Health & Society Scholars have worked to answer the questions critical to guiding our investments in a health policy that will improve our nation’s health,” said Jo Ivey Boufford, M.D., co-director with Christine Bachrach, Ph.D., of the national program office for the Health & Society Scholars program, and president of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM). “Our newest scholars will continue that tradition, which includes a strong emphasis on identifying strategies to reduce health disparities.”
 
Starting in August 2011, Health & Society Scholars for 2011–2013 (cohort 9) will serve in one of six nationally prominent universities: Columbia University; Harvard University; the University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley; the University of Michigan; the University of Pennsylvania; and the University of Wisconsin.

The program is overseen by a national advisory committee of individuals from various disciplines and experiences related to population health. The advisory committee is chaired by Harvey Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Institute of Medicine.

This cohort of scholars is researching how health is influenced by such factors as debt, social networks, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood, and climate change.

The 2011–2013 Health & Society Scholars are as follows:

Ryan K. Masters, Ph.D., received his doctorate in sociology with a specialization in demography from The University of Texas at Austin in 2011. He plans to continue his investigations on how life-course processes of health and mortality are changing across groups in the United States, and the implications of these changes for racial and socioeconomic disparities in health, morbidity and mortality. (Columbia University)

Yi-Ching Ong, Ph.D., will merge her research interests in the molecular and macrosocial determinants of health to investigate how innate susceptibility and resistance to disease is affected by social inequality. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Stanford University in December 2010. (Columbia University)
 
Esther M. Friedman, Ph.D., will examine the degree to which the resources of broader social contexts—extended kin, friends, and neighbors—influence population health. She obtained her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Harvard University).

Jennifer Karas Montez, Ph.D., will investigate the social, psychological and biological mechanisms that link educational attainment and mortality risk. In 2011, she received her Ph.D. in sociology with a demography specialization from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was funded by a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development predoctoral fellowship. (Harvard University)

Meredith Barrett, Ph.D., will work on applying the One Health approach, which integrates diverse disciplines to achieve optimal human, animal and ecosystem health, in research and policy. She will study the effects of climate change on health and will examine the existing barriers to, and incentives required for, building collaborative approaches to health. She received her Ph.D. in ecology at Duke University. (University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley)

Olivier Humblet, Ph.D., will study stress and psychosocial factors in relation to health and immune function, and the extent to which these factors act synergistically with environmental pollutants. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford School of Medicine in the Division of Immunology and Allergy. In 2010, he received his doctorate in environmental molecular epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. (University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley)

Natalie D. Crawford, Ph.D., will expand her dissertation work by integrating a more sociologically-driven perspective to understanding how discrimination influences material risks (e.g., low education, lack of access to health care) and resources (e.g., personal physician access, health knowledge) in one’s social network. She also plans to explore the intersection of contextual neighborhood features and gentrification on social network risk structures to better understand racial/ethnic disparities in health. Crawford received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. (University of Michigan)

Corina Graif, Ph.D., will examine the implications of migration flows, neighborhoods, and spatial mismatch for individual and collective well-being. Graif received her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. (University of Michigan)

Danya Keene, Ph.D., will continue to work on issues related to residential mobility, geographic rootedness, place and health equity. She is developing a mixed-methods project to explore the experiences and health consequences of home foreclosure in low-income Philadelphia communities. She received her Ph.D. in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan in 2009. (University of Pennsylvania)
 
Van Tran, Ph.D., will examine how growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods affects mental and physical health outcomes among the immigrant second-generation, as well as how cultural, structural and biological factors interact to shape health disparities both across and within ethno-racial groups. Van received his Ph.D. in sociology and social policy at Harvard University and, upon completion of the Health & Society Scholars program, will be an assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University. (University of Pennsylvania)

Thomas Fuller-Rowell, Ph.D., plans to expand his knowledge of physiological systems relating to stress, gain exposure to interdisciplinary perspectives on population health, and contribute to addressing current limitations in the literature on discrimination and health. He received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University in 2010. (University of Wisconsin)

Jason Houle, Ph.D., plans to examine the relationship between debt and mental health over the life course. He received his Ph.D. in sociology and demography from Pennsylvania State University in 2011. (University of Wisconsin) 


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The RWJF Health & Society Scholars program is designed to build the nation’s capacity for research, leadership and policy change to address the broad range of factors that affect health. Additional information about the RWJF Health & Society Scholars program, including application information, can be found at RWJFLeaders.org.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
 

Posted on June 9, 2011

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