News

The Community Health Equity Research Institute is launching its first-ever pilot funding program to address health equities and adverse social determinants of health. The institute will fund two projects with a maximum budget of $40,000 each.

Despite substantial government investment aimed at reducing health disparities, large differences in health persist across geographic and racial lines in the United States. One prominent theory is that these health disparities are driven in part by disparities in the neighborhood environments where people live. If this is the case, then housing policies that desegregate, and therefore reduce disparities in neighborhood environments, may be an effective means for reducing disparities in health.

On Sept. 30, 300 community members along with UB students, faculty and staff gathered for the sixth annual “Igniting Hope” conference. The gathering has matured into what organizers describe as a movement aimed at bringing lasting change to the region by ending race-based disparities and their devastating impacts on the health of Black people, Hispanic people and other underrepresented groups.

Improving maternal health outcomes is the focus of “A Mother Pearl Young Legacy Forum on Hope and Healing: Advancing Key Maternal Health Policies,” which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

For Susan Grinslade, community engagement coordinator in the School of Nursing, the Million Hearts initiative is more than a snappy, well-meaning slogan.

Since 2016, when she was a member of the African American Health Equity Task Force, Grinslade has been an activist and advocate for helping people in underserved communities become more aware of heart problems.

UB will continue its commitment to addressing adverse social determinants of health in the community through its cutting-edge Community Health Equity Research Institute, thanks to support from Timothy and Vicki Murphy.

Murphy, SUNY Distinguished Professor and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and his wife, Vicki, recently provided a generous donation to fund pilot studies in the Community Health Equity Research Institute and scholarship opportunities in mental health nursing in the School of Nursing, from which Vicki is a graduate.

The American Nurses Association announced the induction of University at Buffalo School of Nursing clinical professor Susan Grinslade into its 2023 class of fellows.

Grinslade, PhD, RN, PHCNS-BC, is the associate director of UB’s Community Health Research Institute. She is also the School of Nursing’s community engagement coordinator.

Mental health matters! Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, act, handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is just as important as physical health throughout our lives.

Ten highly accomplished scholars and artists will come to UB this fall as members of the newest cohort of the year-long Distinguished Visiting Scholars (DVS) program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Their work will help elucidate social inequality and advance social justice within the university and Buffalo community.