Policies for Action is pleased to announce that it will extend funding to its current Research Hub at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and welcome two new Research Hubs at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Vanderbilt University. Using cutting-edge methodologies and datasets to bridge and break down traditional research silos, the hubs will generate high-impact policy research to explore how policies, laws, and regulations in both the public and private sectors can help build a Culture of Health.

Each hub has designed a unique research portfolio to inform urgent policy issues:

New York University Wagner School of Public Service led by Sherry Glied, PhD. 
Building on its previous work as a Research Hub, NYU’s Wagner School will take a stronger focus on housing instability, criminal justice, and education, as well as examine the effects of non-health policies on health in the context of place. The team’s unique approach and unprecedented access to state Medicaid data promises to foster policy-relevant research that can arm policymakers with the evidence they need to build tailored policy solutions across New York State and beyond.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health led by Benjamin Sommers, MD, PhD. 
The Research Hub at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, teamed with researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University, will examine the continuing course and impact of health insurance expansion and alternative models of coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The hub will also be responsible for rapid-turnaround analyses of key issues that arise in Medicaid policy and health care disparities during the study period.

Vanderbilt University led by Melinda Buntin, PhD and Carolyn J. Heinrich, PhD. 
This Research Hub will unite experts from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Department of Health Policy and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development to combine statewide health and education data to illuminate ways current policies, processes, and program structures might be adapted to better serve the needs of children in Tennessee. The research has considerable potential for devising new, low-cost strategies to improve program access and child well-being.

Hub leadership will also work collaboratively with the national coordinating center at the Urban Institute to identify creative ways to elevate P4A research for advocates, policymakers, community leaders and others working to improve population health, well-being, and equity in this country.

Learn more about P4A’s Research Hubs.