Community & Public Health

Two high-profile studies came out this week with similar conclusions: Exposing kids to microbes and allergens may well lead to fewer allergies and better-adjusted immune systems. Tolerance of potential triggers, the studies suggest, is looking more and more like an acquired skill.

Chronic Disease

Geographic boundaries can have a big impact on health insurance options, particularly for people living in rural regions. Rural residents tend to fare better on premiums and choices when their area is grouped with an urban neighbor.

Health Insurance and Costs, Healthcare Regulation and Reform, Environmental Health

My project will look at current research into cancers that disproportionately affect ethnic minorities, specifically Jewish and African-American communities. I will examine medical discoveries and ongoing clinical trials that hope to shed light on breast and ovarian cancer, male breast and prostat

Chronic Disease, Race and Equity

In 1965, the deinstitutionalization of mental health treatment charted a path toward overcrowded prisons and a shortage of mental health treatment facilities. Today, Imperial County in California is dealing with both of those consequences.

Mental Health, Environmental Health

If you are a Californian having a baby for the first time, choose your hospital wisely. You might even wish to move. A recent report from the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce revealed alarming discrepancies in outcomes for low-risk pregnancies at high-performing and low-perform

Patient Safety and Ethics, Environmental Health, Women's and Maternal Health

According to dozens of interviews with housing rights lawyers, code enforcement officials and building inspectors, substandard housing conditions are rampant in Sonoma County's poorest neighborhoods. And landlords face little consequences for letting their properties fall into disrepair.

Environmental Health

Beaches, sunshine, natural beauty, high-priced homes. In so many ways, Ventura County embodies the affluent, laid-back lifestyle of California’s coastal regions....

Mental Health, Environmental Health, Poverty and Class

Like in many low-income communities, violence is a major concern for residents of Merced County. Just last year, the county recorded its highest number of homicides at 32. For this project, I will explore the short and long-term effects that the increasing violence has on residents’ mental health.

Environmental Health