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Awardees announced for 2021-22 undergraduate research travel funds

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The Population Health Initiative announced three awardees for the Undergraduate Research Travel Awards for the 2021-22 academic year. These awards were granted through a partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Research as part of its annual conference travel award program. The award application process was open to undergraduate students on all three UW campuses who had a population health-related paper, poster or scholarly creative work accepted for presentation at a professional conference. The following table details the three awardees, their…

Jody Early advances health equity through community-based research and teaching

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Dr. Jody Early’s teaching, service and research endeavors are centered on the intersections between education, health and human rights. She strives to help students think critically about the way systems of oppression impact in their own lives and population health challenges, carrying this framework into her many research endeavors and professional pursuits. “If we are truly striving for health equity, we have to tackle the forces that perpetuate oppression and exclusion,” said Early. Early is a professor in the School…

Resmaa Menakem joins UW Community Circle to explain somatic approach to healing

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On May 3, 2022, the University of Washington Population Health Initiative, the School of Public Health, the Race & Equity Initiative and the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity hosted a virtual guided conversation with Resmaa Menakem (pictured), an educator of anti-racism whose multiple books and courses implement a somatic approach to healing racialized trauma. Over the past several months, a group of UW faculty and staff joined to create the UW Community Circle in which they read and discussed…

Initiative announces awardees of spring quarter 2022 Tier 3 pilot research grants

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The Population Health Initiative has announced the award of five Tier 3 pilot grants to close out its grant funding for the 2021-22 academic year. The total value of these five awards is approximately $1.19 million, which included roughly $900,000 in funding from the initiative plus additional matching funds from different schools, colleges, departments and external partners. The purpose of the Tier 3 pilot grant program is to support faculty and PI-eligible staff to create follow-on opportunities for impactful projects…

Winning papers announced for 2022 Population Health Library Research Awards

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Four students have received awards from the Population Health Initiative for the 2022 Library Research Award for Undergraduates. The quality of their writing, the innovativeness of their research hypothesis and how well they connected their work to the theme of population health were the factors considered in choosing award winners. This award was created in 2017 in partnership with the UW Libraries and is open to undergraduates from all three campuses. The projects submitted were completed for either UW course…

Counties relying on court fees for revenue see increase rates of incarceration for women

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Recent research from the University of Washington indicates a connection between counties in Washington state that bolster their revenues through court-imposed fines and the incarceration rates among women in those counties. The researchers found entire communities are being affected by the penalization of individuals through monetary sanctions such as traffic fines or court processing fees. With the knowledge that women’s incarceration rates are increasing while men’s are decreasing, the researchers analyzed the connection between defendants’ gender and monetary sanctions specifically…

Initiative announces summer 2022 cohort of Applied Research Fellows

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The Population Health Initiative announced the selection of four graduate students and one undergraduate student as the 2022 cohort of the Applied Research Fellowship program. Launched in 2019, the Applied Research Fellowship was created – and continues to be run – in partnership with the University of Washington’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. The program’s goal is to offer students data analysis, critical thinking and team science skills that will help them solve complex population health challenges on…

Pilot project seeks to revamp methods of counting homeless populations in King County

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The current method of counting individuals experiencing homelessness centers on national “point in time” census-like counts conducted once a year, which are proven to miss many hidden individuals while being highly inefficient. Dr. Amy Hagopian, professor in the University of Washington School of Public Health, is leading an interdisciplinary team awarded a Tier 2 Population Health Initiative pilot grant titled, “Innovating Better Methods to Enumerate Individuals Experiencing Homelessness,” with the goal of reforming these inadequate systems of counting to reduce…

Increased economic support positively impacts maternal health

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A team of University of Washington researchers conducted a study determining the impact of Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) on alcohol misuse and symptoms of depression among women who had recently given birth. They found an inverse correlation between more generous EITC payments and the risks in question, highlighting the benefits of anti-poverty policies on health issues. Federal EITC subsidies are provided to low-income working families in the U.S., and supplemental EITC programs vary across states. The team analyzed these…

WATRIBAL supports food equity and access for tribal communities during COVID-19

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The Population Health Initiative hosted students and faculty on May 3, 2022 for a presentation of, “WATRIBAL Project: Assessing food security and traditional foods access in WA State tribal communities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” by Dr. Victoria Warren Mears, Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center Director, and Dr. Jennifer J. Otten, Associate Professor for the UW Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences & Food Systems Director. The presentation was part of the Let’s Talk Pop Health series, which is a series…