ABOUT THE PROGRAM

You'll find a wide set of research opportunities at the University of Michigan...

The Health & Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan emphasizes the importance of linking a multi-level array of causal factors to understand and improve population health and eliminate the great health disparities within our society. By bringing together faculty in Social Epidemiology, Sociology, Health Behavior and Health Education, Medicine, History, Public Policy, Social Work, Health Management and Policy, Neurosciences, Neuroendocrinology, Biostatistics, Biology, Economics, Genetics, Urban Planning, Political Science, Demography, Education, Statistics, and Ecology, we have created an environment in which independent scholars can gain depth, breadth, and a wide set of research opportunities in which to understand the broad determinants of individual and population health.

Leading this program are three co-directors, two of whom are members of the Institute of Medicine: George A. Kaplan, Ph.D., professor of Epidemiology, research professor at the Institute for Social Research, and director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health; James S. House, Ph.D., professor of Sociology, and research professor in the Social Environment and Health Program at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research; and Ana V. Diez Roux, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Epidemiology. The directors and the steering committee of 16 other faculty have published extensively on the core topics of the Health & Society Scholars Program. An additional 70 faculty members are committed to providing research opportunities and mentoring.

The program is designed to provide a fertile environment in which scholars and their mentors can fashion a highly individualized program of study and research. Scholars pursue an active research program and participate in intensive seminars, including Foundations of Population Health, Population Health Research Seminars, Research Methods in Population Health, a Faculty/scholars Seminar, a scholars tutorial, focusing on leadership, and Career Development in Population Health.

Multiple mentors, representing the Program, and scholars' home disciplines and their special research interests, work with the scholar to provide a productive two-year experience.

Scholars determine their own research agenda, with the University's unique resources providing extensive opportunities for scholars to gain experience in primary and secondary data analysis. Program faculty are leaders of many exciting projects, including the Health and Retirement Study, the Americans' Changing Lives Study, The Alameda County Study, the National Survey of African-American Mental Health, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study, the Chicago Community of Adult Health Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, many ongoing community-based health studies in Detroit conducted through the Urban Research Center, the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, The Women's Employment Study, and many others. The University also has special centers that allow analyses of confidential data from the census and other sources.

We are committed as researchers and teachers to meeting the national need for increased training of future leaders and scholars who understand the links between society and health. We have exceptional faculty with considerable expertise in this area, a large and varied set of institutional and community resources, and an internationally recognized record of commitment to interdisciplinary training.

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