pdf - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern University

K. McElroy
Social disparities and health
Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health is a recently
launched initiative within IPR that aims to understand how social and cultural
contexts affect physical and mental health as well as cognitive achievement
at the population level. P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, professor of human
development and social policy, is its founding director. Currently, the center is
organized around four main lines of research:
Lindsay Chase-
Lansdale, Chair
• social disparities, stress, and health,
• families, interpersonal relationships, and health,
• developmental perspectives on health disparities from conception through
adulthood, and
• policy, practice, race, culture, and ethics.
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The goal of C2S
is to integrate the
social, behavioral,
biomedical, and
life sciences to
illuminate pathways
contributing
to health inequalities
and to develop
translational and
policy solutions.
Some of the center’s projects overlap with other IPR program areas, in particular,
Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies and Poverty, Race, and Inequality. (See
pp. 9-21.)
8 Overview of Activities
2006 was an exciting year of development
for C2S. The center received an R21
grant from the Demographic and
Behavioral Sciences Branch of the
National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD).
R21 developmental infrastructure
awards provide support for potentially
high-risk, high-payoff new population
research centers that are in the early
stages of development. Those awarded
by the NICHD are also used to
enhance population research at specific
institutions—in particular through
interdisciplinary collaboration—and
to develop innovative approaches to
population research. The NICHD confers
the grants with the expectation that
recipients will apply for an R24 award to
fund a population center four to five years
after receiving the R21.
The five-year R21 grant will support
work on biomarker analysis and usage in
addition to training. It will also establish a
seed-grant program to promote the use of
biomarkers and other innovative methods
in population- and community-based
research projects. The first C2S biomarker
award winners were recently announced.
A critical component of the center’s plans
to become a full population center are
key faculty hires. After conducting a
national search in collaboration with the
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences,
IPR and C2S announced the hiring
of demographer Alberto Palloni and
sociologist Jeremy Freese, both from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. They
will both join the Institute in fall 2007.
Palloni is an internationally respected
sociologist, a past president of the
Population Association of America, and
a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. His research covers
many areas, including health, fertility,
mortality, population and development,
the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the aging
process among others. Freese conducts
research on various topics that seek
to connect biological, psychological,
and social processes. He is especially
interested in how such connections
are altered by large-scale social or
technological changes.