The Health & Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan emphasizes the importance of linking a multi-level array of causal factors in order to understand and improve population health and eliminate health inequalities. The program brings together faculty from multiple disciplines, including Epidemiology, Sociology, Health Behavior and Health Education, Medicine, Genetics, History, Public Policy, Social Work, Health Management and Policy, Neurosciences, Biostatistics, Economics, Urban Planning, Political Science, Demography, and Ecology in order to create a truly interdisciplinary environment in which scholars can gain depth, breadth and a wide set of research opportunities in a broad set of issues relevant to population health.

The program is directed by Ana V. Diez Roux, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Director, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health and by Co-Directors James S. House, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Research Professor, Institute for Social Research; Mark L. Wilson, Sc.M., Sc.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , and Jeffrey Morenoff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology and Research Associate Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, and Carlos Mendes de Leon, Ph.D. Professor of Epidemiology. A Steering Committee composed of 15 faculty assists the Directors with multiple aspects of the program. In addition, a broad range of other faculty members throughout the campus are committed to providing research opportunities and mentoring.

Scholars are based at the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health and have the opportunity to collaborate with researchers throughout all of the University of Michigan campus. 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. Multiple mentors, representing the scholar's home discipline, area of research involvement, and the interdisciplinary perspective of the program, will work with the scholar to provide a productive two-year experience.

Scholars participate in program activities including a population health seminar, workshops on various aspects of methodology, a seminar series, and regular Scholar meetings. In addition the University's unique resources provide extensive opportunities for scholars to participate in a range of activities throughout the campus and gain experience in various aspects of research including data collection or 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 Chicago Community Study of Adult Health, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the MESA Neighborhood Study and many other population based studies throughout the United States as well as internationally. 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 population health and related areas, a large and varied set of institutional and community resources, and an internationally recognized record of commitment to interdisciplinary research and training.