Co-Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars

Director, Kellogg Health Scholars in Minority Disparities

Co-Director, IMSD (Initiative to Maximize Student Diversity) Training Grant

Senior Editor in Social Epidemiology, Social Science & Medicine

Chair, Institutional Review Board (IRB), HSPH

Social Determinants of Health

My research interests span across a range of social determinants of population health and health disparities. My investigations encompass the macro-level determinants of population health (e.g. income inequality, social cohesion, and political participation), to the meso-level (neighborhood contextual influences), down to the individual-level (stress, and psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease).  I was the co-editor, with Lisa Berkman, of the textbook on "Social Epidemiology" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).  

Income inequality and population health

For the past decade I have been conducting investigations on the damaging population health consequences of growing inequality, which is summarized in the book, "The Health of Nations" (New York: The New Press, 2002, with Bruce Kennedy).

Social capital and health

A second strand of my research has sought to establish the links between health and "social capital", defined as access to network-based resources such as trust, norms, and reciprocity exchanges.  This work has been summarized in a recently edited a textbook, "Social Capital and Health" (New York: Springer 2008, with Daniel Kim and S.V. Subramanian). My recent work on social capital (with Takeo Fujiwara) has sought to test the links with health status using panel designs (J Epidemiol Comm Health. 2008 Jul;62(7):627-33) and twin fixed effects (Am J Prev Med. 2008 Aug;35(2):139-44.

Neighborhood influences on health

With S.V. Subramanian and others, I am interested in approaches to examine neighborhood "contextual" influences on health outcomes, including obesity.  This work is summarized in the textbook, "Neighborhoods and Health" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, with Lisa Berkman).

Global health

My research activities span across the globe, including collaborations with colleagues in Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China), Latin America (Chile, Ecuador, Brazil), Europe (Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands), and Australia/New Zealand.  My interests in global health are summarized in my textbook, "Globalization and Health" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, with Sarah Wamala).

M.D., 1985, Otago University, New Zealand
Ph.D., 1991, Otago University, New Zealand