News | August 22, 2019
‘Hidden’ data exacerbates rural public health inequities
Differences in the health of rural residents compared to their urban neighbors are startling. In Washington, for instance, rural residents are one-third more likely to die from intentional self-harm or 13 percent more likely to die from heart disease. However, while statistics like these help guide public health policy and spending, they can hide even…
News | September 7, 2021
2021 Urban@UW Spark Grants awardees announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the second round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The two projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Vehicle Residents: A Case Study of the Seattle Public Utilities’ Recreational Vehicle Wastewater…
Scholar
Amy Hagopian
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Barbara Baquero
Visit scholar websiteCourse | HSERV 479
Black Lives and Police Violence: Racism and the Public’s Health
The effects of racism on health are profound and multi-dimensional. Critically analyzes theories of human behavior in relation to epidemiological concepts of race, against the backdrop of the current Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.Scholar
Caleb Banta-Green
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 10, 2021
Co-designing a technology intervention to support the health and development of children
The King County’s 2018-2019 Community Needs Assessment revealed that infants from racially and economically marginalized groups encounter the highest rates of infant mortality and lowest birth weights compared to any other population. King County has offered developmental screening services and virtual information to help child caregivers address this issue. However, there is growing consensus among…
Course | HSERV 345
Community Health Assessment
Introduces role of assessment in planning for community health improvement through health promotion activities. Considers determinants of health; methods to find, collect, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data; interpret findings to describe the health resources, risks, and outcomes; role of assessment in identifying health disparities and patterns of health inequities.Course | HSERV 531
COPHP Population Health and Community Development
Population Health considers social and other factors that determine health. The course challenges dominate views of health. We compare health in the United States with other countries. In Community Development, we learn asset-based community engagement. Students work directly with community members, advocates, and service organizations to address health issues.Course | HSERV 488
Dark Empire: Race, Health, and British Society – Abroad
Explores factors responsible for the well-being and health of black and other racial/ethnic minorities in Britain. Addresses: the National Health Service; ethnic diaspora, anti-immigration laws; urban riots; inequality, and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and Islamophobia. Conducted in Britain.News | April 7, 2020
Data suggests coronavirus is disproportionately affecting Black communities in the US
Preliminary demographic data – where available — and early anecdotal evidence suggest that poor African-Americans are contracting and dying from the coronavirus in disproportionate rates. In the state of Michigan, while blacks represent only 12% of the total population, they account for at least 40% of its coronavirus-related deaths, said the Michigan Department of Health and…
Scholar
Derek Jennings
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 8, 2019
Drug-related deaths continue to rise in King County
Drug-related deaths have continued to climb in King County, with fatal overdoses involving methamphetamine and fentanyl on the rise, according to Public Health — Seattle & King County. King County, like cities across the country, have focused their efforts on combating opioids. Syringe exchanges in King County distributed nearly 8 million needles last year, along…
News | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
Scholar
Elena Austin
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 18, 2020
Food insecurity rates have more than doubled since start of COVID-19 pandemic
Since the onset of the pandemic, food insecurity rates have more than doubled in our state. That’s according to researchers at the University of Washington who have just compiled the results from their first round of a statewide survey. It was done this summer in cooperation with Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, as well…
News | June 25, 2016
Good food, not gone to waste
UW School of Public Health works with city to combat hunger, reduce discards Forty percent of food in the United States—much of it healthy and edible—goes uneaten. It ends up in landfills and produces methane emissions that are 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, more than 48 million Americans…
Scholar
Janet Baseman
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Jonathan Mayer
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Katie Wilson
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 16, 2020
Opportunities to engage UW faculty and students to address COVID-19
In recognition of the intense needs of local governments around COVID-19 response and recovery, the LCY program has compiled a list of existing UW courses whose faculty and students are seeking to assist local communities in COVID-related projects. Most projects can start in Autumn 2020 — some as early as Summer 2020. The list of…
News | May 5, 2020
Population Health Initiative announces award of 21 COVID-19 rapid response grants
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $350,000 in COVID-19 rapid response grants to 21 different faculty-led teams. These teams are composed of individuals representing 10 different schools and colleges. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $820,000. “A…
News | September 9, 2019
Project aims to boost care for opioid use among homeless
On August 21, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the University of Washington’s Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute (ADAI) announced the Meds-First Initiative that expands an innovative approach to treating opioid-use disorder for high-acuity populations to four locations in Washington. The treatment sites are located across the state in North Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Walla Walla. “Medication…
News | October 19, 2022
Recently completed Spark Grants foster research on mobile home wastewater management, and estimating unhoused populations
Over the past year, two teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Spark Grants. In September 2021 grants of up to $20,000 were awarded to amplify collaborative research-to-practice with a focus on today’s urban issues. The two UW teams of…
News | July 22, 2022
Seattle’s soda tax benefits low-income communities, study finds
A new study concludes that Seattle’s soda tax isn’t disproportionately harming lower-income families — and is actually benefiting lower-income households as a group. University of Washington researchers analyzed sugary drink purchases across more than 1,100 households in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle in the first year the cities enacted soda taxes. In all three cities,…
News | December 9, 2015
SPH Faculty Tap into New UW Effort to Create More Livable Cities
A new University of Washington initiative is thinking “upstream” when it comes to creating safer, healthier and more livable cities. Urban@UW aims to bring together UW faculty, staff and students from different disciplines with city decision-makers and citizens to wrestle with urban issues such as housing and poverty, growth and transportation, and food and economic…
News | May 26, 2020
SPH partners with state health department to reach vulnerable communities about COVID-19
What do communities most vulnerable to COVID-19 need to know about the disease, and what are the most effective methods for reaching them? These are questions a partnership between the University of Washington School of Public Health and the Washington State Department of Health seeks to answer. To better understand the information needs of communities…
Scholar
Stephanie Farquhar
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 15, 2019
Tacoma’s wastewater has the answers in a new cannabis study
Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound took samples from Tacoma’s wastewater plants from 2013 to 2016 and then analyzed those samples for THC levels. THC is the most common psychoactive chemical found in cannabis, so measuring the quantity of THC in Tacoma’s excrement would provide data on how much…
Scholar
Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett
Visit scholar websiteCourse | GH 482 / HSERV 482
The Health of Populations
Explores what makes a population healthy or unhealthy. Examines why the United States is less healthy than all other rich countries, despite being one of the healthiest fifty years ago.News | October 12, 2020
This South King County church created a drive-thru food bank in response to the pandemic
The Tukwila Food Pantry has been a lifeline for many South King County residents who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Like many local food banks, it saw a surge in demand. It went from serving 50 households a day, pre-Covid, to 500. The pantry is at Riverton Park Methodist Church. It started out…
News | June 9, 2020
To address health inequities, Black folks need the right to move without harm
On a crisp afternoon last fall, Douglas Pullen, a 69-year-old Black man, was nearly hit by a white driver during his daily walk through his Seattle neighborhood. Having witnessed this, Kate Hoerster, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UW School of Medicine, checked on Mr. Pullen after he was safely on the other side…
News | May 18, 2020
Traffic in Seattle area slowly returning
If you’ve left home, you’ve probably noticed. A few more people are on the roads. “We are seeing traffic slowly start to come back,” said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst for the traffic data company INRIX. Pishue said as the COVID-19 shutdown began, traffic in the Seattle area dropped 54%. It’s now rebounded a bit to…
News | February 16, 2024
Transit workers fight drugs on buses and trains
Written by Joseph Gallivan for Axios Oregon Transit companies are pushing to make it a Class A misdemeanor to use drugs on buses and trains in Oregon. TriMet, the Oregon Transit Association, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 testified yesterday to support amending Senate Bill 1553. The amendment would add the use of illicit drugs…
News | July 9, 2020
Trouble paying medical bills can lead to longer episodes of homelessness, new study shows
Even before the pandemic left COVID-19 patients with staggering hospital bills, many people, especially those who are uninsured, were often overwhelmed with medical bills. And medical debt and housing instability often go hand in hand. In a new University of Washington study of people experiencing homelessness in King County, unpaid medical bills were their primary…
News | March 28, 2018
Urban Scholar Highlight: Josephine Ensign
Josephine Ensign is a Professor in University of Washington’s School of Nursing and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, Affiliate Faculty in UW’s Certificate Program in Public Scholarship, and coordinator of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative’s Doorway Project—which is hosting a popup cafe in honor of Earth Day on April 22!…
News | September 27, 2017
UW researchers analyze effects of minimum wage on seattle food prices
Affiliates UW Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Health Services Jennifer Otten (lead author), UW Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance Jake Vigdor, and Evans School’s Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Public policy and Governance and Adjunct Professor of Economics Mark Long…
Scholar
Wendy Barrington
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 19, 2017
Why Architects should care about public health
Andrew Dannenberg, an Affiliate Professor at the School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments, writes about the importance of architects recognizing human health: while architects have long recognized the importance of human health —including physical, mental, and social well-being — as part of their mission, implementation sometimes reflects a spirit of compliance…