About

The Vanderbilt Center for Research on Inequality and Health is a trans-institutional collaboration between the College of Arts and Science and the School of Nursing. The center was born out of Discovery Vanderbilt, the university’s ambitious effort to pursue bold new ideas through disciplined, rigorous inquiry.

Our Mission

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We aim to unite, generate, and amplify high-quality scholarship on the causes and consequences of health inequalities.

Our research addresses questions such as: How did state policy environments shape mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic? What does changing public opinion on gun carrying in public spaces mean for population health and well-being? How are adverse childhood experiences related to later life educational and health outcomes, and can social supports buffer or exacerbate those effects? Does having access to an affirming health care provider improve health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people?

Through our work, we aim to deepen society's understanding of the determinants of population health within vulnerable communities (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, economically disadvantaged, elderly, and their intersections). We produce sound, collaborative scholarship that raises awareness of these wide-ranging and critical challenges and informs potential solutions to them.

Why Vanderbilt?

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Vanderbilt is uniquely positioned to advance scientific discovery about the causes and consequences of health-related inequalities. Vanderbilt's culture of radical collaboration fuels, and is fueled by, a true trans-institutional commitment to rigorous scientific inquiry that combines critical perspectives from all of its schools and colleges. This collaborative spirit is exemplified by various innovative departments and centers across campus, including the Department of Medicine, Health & Society and the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab.

Indeed, Vanderbilt's unique combination of world-class nursing, medical, law, and divinity schools, combined with deep expertise in the Peabody College of Education and the College of Arts and Science, all within a compact campus footprint, enables us to move the needle on health inequality research through this transformational effort.

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