Policies for Action (P4A) is proud to announce the funding of nine research teams across the country as part of its mission to identify policies, laws, and other system and community levers that can help ensure everyone has the opportunity to live a healthier life.

With topics including paid family leave laws, substance use interventions, and vaccine exemptions, these research projects represent truly innovative thinking on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

The following projects are now underway:

• Boston University School of Social Work, led by principal investigators Thomas Byrne, PhD, and Daniel P. Miller, PhD, will explore whether the monetary value of housing assistance has an impact on health outcomes, and if this impact varies across federal housing assistance programs.
• Cornell University, led by principal investigators Nicolas R. Ziebarth, PhD, and Catherine Maclean, PhD, will evaluate the impact of state-level sick pay mandates on coverage rates, other non-mandated fringe benefits, and the spread of infectious diseases.
• George Washington University, led by principal investigators Avi Dor, PhD, and Ali Moghtaderi, PhD, will assess the impact of state vaccine mandates and exemptions on childhood immunization coverage.
• Health Research, Inc. and New York State Department of Health, led by principal investigators Barbara A. Dennison, MD, and Pinka Chatterji, PhD, will assess the impact of New York State’s new paid family leave law on maternal and infant health outcomes, equity, and the business community.
• Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts and Tufts University, led by principal investigators Kathleen Szegda, PhD, MPH, MS, and Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH, will investigate whether “Complete Streets” policies lead to changes in the built environment, the economic environment, the social environment, and health/health behaviors.
• University of California, Berkeley, led by principal investigators Sylvia A. Allegretto, PhD, and Michael Reich, PhD, will examine the effect of minimum wage variation on infant mortality and prenatal care, as well as outcomes for low-wage workers such as body mass index, and the risk of chronic health conditions.
• University of Chicago, led by principal investigator Harold Pollack, PhD, will evaluate and test the expansion of a program piloted by the Chicago Police Department to redirect low-level drug offenders to treatment, rather than to jail and prosecution.

This year, special supplementary funds were available for research on actionable policies that support children’s healthy weight and/or reduce childhood obesity. The following projects are now underway:

• University of California, Davis, led by principal investigators Marianne Page, PhD, and Chloe East, PhD, will study the impact of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on the health and well-being of subsequent generations.
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte, led by principal investigators Elizabeth Racine, DrPH, RD, and Elizabeth Mumford, MHS, PhD, will assess the economic viability for discount stores in underserved areas to become authorized vendors of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Expanding the evidence base on the health impacts of public- and private-sector policies in different sectors can help us better understand what levers can be used to build a national Culture of Health. Please join us in congratulating these distinguished scholars, and keep in touch to learn about the results of their projects.