Population Health

March 8, 2018

Bridge funding awarded for new population health faculty hires

Faculty bridge hires awardedThe University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $1.8 million in funding for three new faculty positions that will focus on developing innovative solutions to population health grand challenges identified by the Initiative. These awards, which are each a four-year “bridge” against future retirements, were selected through a competitive application process that required proposal of a joint hire between two or more academic departments.

The three positions selected for funding are:

Developing population-level innovations for local early-childhood interventions

Awarded to:
School of Nursing (Department of Psychosocial and Community Health) and School of Public Health (Department of Health Services)

Position details:
There is an urgent need for better early childhood and youth interventions to enable all children to achieve their full potential. This faculty position will be the catalyst that binds together multiple UW schools, departments and resources while leveraging a developing partnership with Public Health—Seattle & King County to address the Population Health Initiative’s grand challenges at a local level.

Improving maternal, adolescent and child mental health, with a global perspective

Awarded to:
College of Arts & Sciences (Department of Psychology) and Schools of Medicine and Public Health (Department of Global Health)

Position details:
This position will work in the area of maternal, adolescent and child mental health. Areas of research will include understanding predisposing factors involved in adverse mental health outcomes, and developing culturally appropriate, evidence-based interventions to enhance the well-being of vulnerable populations. Innovative new technologies will be explored to enhance access to effective preventive care and treatment.

Addressing the coupled issues of health and the environment in Arctic indigenous communities

Awarded to:
College of the Environment (School of Marine and Environmental Affairs) and College of Arts & Sciences (Department of American Indian Studies)

Position details:
Population health in Arctic indigenous communities is tightly tied to environment via deep connections between people, land, ice, water and wildlife. Climate change in Arctic environments, and warming specifically, influences indigenous health and well-being through erosion of traditional ways of life. Moreover, the warming of the Arctic presents new challenges concerning energy development, resource extraction and population movements. This faculty position will develop new scholarship to address environmental challenges to health. Work will be performed in collaboration with the affected communities to help to strengthen community resilience and ease transitions in the face of accelerating change.

“Our goal in providing these central funds was to augment our already rich network of population health tenure-track faculty with new faculty who explicitly represent the cross-disciplinary collaboration that is essential to the Initiative’s success,” said Gerald Baldasty, UW provost and executive vice president. “We believe these hires will serve as a model and inspiration for others to follow in terms of how we address major local and global population health challenges.”

Recruitment for these three positions will begin later this year. A decision regarding any future call for proposals to accelerate and support population health faculty hiring will occur during the 2018-19 academic year.