October 14, 2021
Impact of wildfire smoke hit some groups harder than others
Nearly a dozen researchers from the University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) in the School of Public Health have been hard at work addressing questions and health risks associated with wildfires in the Northwest. Through a series of community-based research projects, DEOHS researchers and their collaborators are working to study…
October 12, 2021
UW Community Circle launches, seeks to build a community of care
Several University of Washington programs are launching a community circle with a conversation about Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands, which focuses on how to build a community of care by addressing embodied trauma. The kickoff event is occurring virtually on October 28, 2021 at 4 p.m. Pacific and is open to all UW faculty…
October 7, 2021
Northwest Detention Center study examines pandemic’s effect on local immigrant population
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of society, notably the United States immigration system. The United States has the largest immigrant detention infrastructure in the world. Immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns over the management of American detention centers, with concerns regarding human rights conditions experienced by immigrants who encounter such centers….
September 30, 2021
Spotlight: Shawn Swanson pursues medical innovations through social entrepreneurship
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…
September 21, 2021
New study explores impact of police action on population health
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…
September 16, 2021
Project EMAR works to improve adolescent mental health via a co-designed social robot
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…
September 14, 2021
Social Entrepreneurship Fellows develop strategic roadmaps for UW innovations
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…
September 8, 2021
Spotlight: Nidhi Agrawal’s consumer psychology expertise helps improve population health
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…
September 1, 2021
New research finds air pollution hits people of color the hardest
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…
August 25, 2021
Researchers work to understand and mitigate post-wildfire landslide hazards
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…