Health Equity Pillar

Defining the Challenge

The conditions in which people live, learn, work, play and age profoundly shape their chances for long and healthy lives. Yet communities across the United States experience vastly different social and environmental conditions, contributing to persistent inequalities in health and wellbeing. Understanding why these inequities emerge and endure is essential to advancing health equity and improving population health.

Understanding the Systems

Research in this pillar examines the social and structural forces that shape health, including socioeconomic conditions, chronic stressors, discrimination, environmental exposures and experiences with the criminal legal system. The team investigates how these factors create unequal risks and resources across individuals, families and communities, contributing to health inequalities over the life course.

Advancing Change

Researchers connect insights across individual, community and societal levels to understand how unequal risks and resources accumulate and influence health over time. By producing rigorous research and engaging students and scholars across disciplines, the team deepens understanding of the social forces that shape health inequalities and builds evidence to advance health equity and improve population health.