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A Note From CHIBE Director Kevin Volpp

black lives matter sign

Black Lives Matter. The Black community is suffering from the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 and from police violence on top of centuries of pervasive and systemic racism. Those of us at CHIBE seek to determine how to help our society heal and address some of the important challenges that are in front of us. While I am not a member of the groups who have been targeted by racism and police violence, and I cannot truly know what people from the communities that are most directly affected are experiencing, I recognize the pain and the hurt and the need for us to do better.

Efforts to improve health in populations have been a central focus of our Center, and we are proud of the exceptional work that our affiliated faculty do to improve population health. However, while many faculty have contributed to addressing health disparities, we need to do more. Much more. CHIBE will redouble our efforts to prioritize diversity and inclusion in our ranks and to explore efforts to make contributions to research that examine questions like the distributional equity implications of behavioral economic interventions. We will work with our faculty and senior staff to develop seed support for new initiatives through our pilot grant mechanisms and programming through activities like our seminars, retreat, and annual conference.

I welcome any suggestions any of you havefor how we might do this more effectively. Please feel free to reach out to me directly or to Joelle Friedman, the CHIBE Managing Director.

With gratitude and appreciation,
Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD
CHIBE Director