Institute for Innovations in Health Equity
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THE QUEST FOR HEALTH EQUITY
Health inequities impact a wide variety of demographic groups in not just the United States, but all over the world. The Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity promotes scholarship advancing the reduction and elimination of preventable differences in the burden of disease. The quest for health equity addresses both historical and contemporary injustices based on race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, sexuality, disability status and more.
![section_divider_dk_blue_TU_blue Green Dividing Line](https://always.tulane.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/635/2023/10/section_divider_dk_blue_TU_blue-e1696270743629.png)
The institute is comprised of centers, research projects and individual researchers who explore unjust patterns in the distribution of disease that are avoidable and preventable. We work to enhance human health through engagement of disadvantaged communities and populations and to serve as a resource for education and training.
Health inequities have a very real and often deadly cost to human life, evidenced by the declining life expectancy of adults in the United States. These inequities also place an economic burden on communities and states across the country. The costs of racial and ethnic health inequities are staggering. These inequities cost the United States economy $451 billion in 2018, according to a new study published in JAMA by Tulane University researchers, helmed by Thomas LaVeist, dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
According to the National Academy of Sciences, the inequitable distribution of these social determinants matters more than health care alone in attaining quality health. Societal structures, institutions, policies and the environment can play a profound role in generating health inequities. These social determinants shape health trajectories starting in utero and continue across the lifespan. Research on the social determinants of health is still an emerging field, with much of this research being conducted only within the last 20 years.
We work to enhance human health through engagement of disadvantaged communities and populations and to serve as a resource for education and training.
Giving Opportunities
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THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Your generosity would endow a deputy director of the Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity. This new position, which is essential to the institute’s future success, would oversee the institute under the direction of Dean LaVeist. This administrator would build out the institute’s long-term strategic vision and carry out the day-to-day duties of managing the institute. Currently, Dean LaVeist is filling in in this capacity, but hiring an expert for this new role is vital to allowing the institute to thrive. Ideally, the person who will hold this position would have relevant administrative experience, be adept at communicating with heads of foundations and hold expertise in complex health equity issues.
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FACULTY WITH FRONTLINE EXPERIENCE
Your generosity would support hiring faculty members with firsthand experience working with communities affected by health disparities. This experience would allow them to develop a deep understanding of the complex factors contributing to inequities and devise effective strategies to address them. These professors could engage with communities to make sure that community-centered research is conducted in collaboration with the people affected by health inequities.
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PROGRAMMING
A major part of the mission of the Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity is to enhance health through direct engagement of disadvantaged communities. These groups are at disproportionately greater risk for health-related challenges due to heightened exposure to risk factors and the inequitable allocation of protective resources. In addition, the Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity cultivates the next generation of research on health inequities through training activities that are available to students, postdocs and faculty at Tulane University, and to other institutions at the local, national and international levels. Initiatives include workshops, seminars and conferences.
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RESEARCH
The Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity aims to conduct research to understand and reduce health inequities. This research is guided by a social-ecological lens, which recognizes that health phenomena are not solely determined by individual biological or behavioral factors. Rather, societal structures, institutions, policies and the environment can enhance or undermine health and play a profound role in generating health inequities. At Tulane, there is a strong emphasis on connecting laboratory-based research to population sciences, including interactions between socio-contextual factors and psychobiological mechanisms impacting disease vulnerability.
Institute for Innovations in Health Equity
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