Major Projects

Older woman in South Africa

Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (HAALSA)

The goal of this project is to integrate the study of chronic disease (including HIV, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, with a special focus on cognitive impairments including dementia) and their interactions with social, family and economic conditions to better understand the determinants of health and functional status in the elderly in South Africa. Principal Investigators: Lisa Berkman and Thomas Gaziano; Project Director: Julia Rohr
Technician reviewing scans of a brain MRI

Cognitive Function, Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the HAALSI Cohort

This project furthers research conducted by the HAALSI team on the social and biological risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease & related dementias (ADRD) in an aging population in rural South Africa. The HAALSI Dementia Study follows a cohort of 600 participants through two additional waves of dementia diagnostic evaluation, including an enriched cognitive battery, informant interviews, and neurological examinations. Principal Investigator: Lisa Berkman; Project Director: Darina Bassil.
India Policy Insights logo: a magnifying glass over India

India Policy Insights

The overarching goal of this project (also referred to as Burden of Disease and Deprivation in India across Micro and Macro Public Policy Units) is to improve precision public policy, public financing, and governance in India related to population health and development. The researchers aim to harness key population health and development data geocoded to multiple micro and macro public policy units, develop an intelligent public data and analytics platform to disseminate the findings in an interactive way, and engage multiple stakeholders in order to foster evidence-based policy discussion, formulation, and action.  Principal Investigators: S (Subu) V Subramanian and  Rockli Kim 

**This project is connected to the research taking place at the Geographic Insights Lab.

Cover and title of the book

Is Working Longer in the U.S. in Jeopardy?: Development of a Book Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

This research project gathered an interdisciplinary community of top scholars to examine how the contexts that shape individuals’ likelihood of working longer are changing across cohorts, and how they affect some population groups—especially racial minorities and lower-income workers—more than others. The project resulted in the publication of the book, Overtime: America’s Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer,” by Oxford University Press. Directors: Lisa Berkman and Beth Truesdale
Screenshot of the WWBI website homepage

Work and Well-Being Initiative

The Work and Well-Being Initiative (WWBI) is a multi-disciplinary, broad-based research and policy initiative designed to develop and implement evidence-based workplace change for worker well-being. The goal of the initiative is to provide a deeper understanding of worker well-being, and to identify the workplace policies and practices that enhance the lives of workers in the workplace and throughout their lives. The initiative’s website features an Employer Toolkit that can be used to help employers create workplace conditions which foster the health and well-being of all workers in an inclusive manner. Directors: Lisa Berkman and Meg Lovejoy
Black and white image of David Bell sitting behind a desk

David E. Bell Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The David E. Bell Fellowship Program—named in honor of the former Clarence Gamble Professor of Population Sciences and International Health, Emeritus, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies—provides opportunities for research and leadership training in the field of population and development. Bell Fellows examine a broad range of critical issues from multidisciplinary perspectives. Since its creation in 1990, the program has awarded over 80 postdoctoral fellowships to international professionals in population and development. Directors: Lisa Berkman and Jason Beckfield