Spotlight: Shawn Swanson pursues medical innovations through social entrepreneurship

Posted on September 30, 2021

Shawn Swanson is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington College of Engineering and 2021 Population Health Social Entrepreneurship Fellow. He is also the CEO and co-founder of MedsForAll, a startup that aims to provide accessible and affordable rescue drug autoinjectors to historically underserved populations. The idea behind MedsForAll stemmed from Swanson’s background and expertise in materials science and engineering. “I always had been interested in materials since I was a kid,” Swanson said. “This interest led…

New study explores impact of police action on population health

Posted on September 21, 2021

Policing and exposures to law enforcement impact the population health of a community, a new University of Washington-led study demonstrates. The research study shows how policing influences the health and wellbeing of communities in complex ways that have short- and long-term consequences. The researchers conceptualize how incidents involving police, whether indirect or direct, lead to a series of effects on individuals, the community, and the broader systems in which they reside. Collectively, these effects involve a “bidirectional” relationship between policing…

Project EMAR works to improve adolescent mental health via a co-designed social robot

Posted on September 16, 2021

According to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, about 3.2 million teens in the United States have had at least one major depressive episode within the past 12 months. These findings confirm that depression and anxiety among teenagers have been on the rise, which provokes questions around whether current school-based mental health services sufficiently support teens. To address this mental health crisis, Elin A. Björling, senior research scientist and part-time lecturer in the Department of Human Centered Design…

Social Entrepreneurship Fellows develop strategic roadmaps for UW innovations

Posted on September 14, 2021

The Population Health Initiative’s summer 2021 Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program concluded in August with the fellows presenting their findings to students, faculty and staff from schools and colleges across campus. The fellows spent 10 weeks working on population health innovations developed by University of Washington researchers to determine how these innovations could be financially sustainable while also having a substantial societal impact. The Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program was developed by the Population Health Initiative – in partnership with the Buerk…

Spotlight: Nidhi Agrawal’s consumer psychology expertise helps improve population health

Posted on September 8, 2021May 22, 2025

Nidhi Agrawal, the Michael G. Foster Endowed Professor of Marketing and International Business at the UW Foster School of Business, works actively to foster collaborations within her field of business and marketing to address critical population health-related issues. Her passion for marketing began as an undergraduate student at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, India, where she developed an interest in how advertising influences lifestyles and perceptions. “A friend of mine was very interested in advertising and was reading a book by…

New research finds air pollution hits people of color the hardest

Posted on September 1, 2021

A national research effort on air pollution reveals that people of color are disproportionately and systemically exposed to air pollution in the United States. Researchers from the University of Washington contributed to this study, creating an air quality model to analyze peoples’ exposure to air pollution based on race/ethnicity and income levels, utilizing data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Their findings reveal that racial-ethnic minorities are disproportionately exposed to high levels of fine particulate air pollution compared to white people….

Researchers work to understand and mitigate post-wildfire landslide hazards

Posted on August 25, 2021August 25, 2021

The 2020 California wildfires that rampaged through seven million acres of West Coast land have left behind perishable data that researchers are now utilizing to better understand and reduce post-wildfire landslide hazards. The Natural Hazards Reconnaissance Facility (RAPID), directed by University of Washington civil and environmental engineering professor Joe Wartman, is conducting a natural hazards reconnaissance mission on the issue of post-fire landslides. Post-fire landslides result from the chemical changes soil undergoes following exposure to extreme burning. The soil may…

Six new members named to Population Health Initiative executive council

Posted on August 23, 2021February 11, 2025

Six new faculty members have been named to the 30-member Population Health Initiative executive council by President Ana Mari Cauce. They are: Sharon Laing, assistant professor of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership, UW Tacoma Clarita Lefthand-Begay, assistant professor, Information School Magaly Ramirez, assistant professor of Health Systems and Population Health, School of Public Health Judd Walson, professor of Global Health, Medicine, and Pediatrics, Schools of Medicine and Public Health Mayumi Willgerodt, associate professor of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing, School…

Initiative-funded COVID-19 economic recovery grantees report final results

Posted on August 12, 2021

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative awarded 18 COVID-19 economic recovery research grants to teams of UW faculty researchers in June 2020. These grants were intended to support UW researchers in quickly responding to the vast array of economic-related challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funded project teams were composed of individuals representing 13 different schools and colleges at the UW. The $333,000 in initiative funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the…