Supporting a New Generation of Diverse Leaders to Advance Health Equity

During the month of October, we honor many cultures and communities that have been impacted by health inequities. For example, we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day (October 14th), Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th - October 15th), LGBTQ+ History Month, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, among others. These communities are at the forefront of my mind this month not only because of the holidays, but also because as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)-supported Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS), I recently welcomed 40 new scholars from these communities and others that are unduly burdened by health inequities.?

A national program of RWJF and based in the Department of Health Policy & Management, HPRS brings together full-time doctoral students from marginalized backgrounds who have a vision for a better world. They come from a wide range of research-focused disciplines and are dedicated to improving health, well-being, and equity; challenging longstanding, entrenched racist and oppressive systems; collaborating across disciplines and sectors; strengthening their leadership skills; and learning to effectively use policy as a lever for change.??

Scholars in the current cohort are studying topics as diverse as engineering, political science, economics, anthropology, education, social work, and sociology. We believe involving scholars from health-related and health-adjacent (because quite frankly, they all relate to health) disciplines will allow them to build a Culture of Health from their disciplinary lens.??

HPRS is the exact type of program that is needed to guarantee that health equity principles undergird the continual process of ensuring that all communities have opportunities to attain the best health possible. The program recognizes that the increasing diversity of our country’s population can best be served when the people who conduct research also reflect that diversity. Yes, diversity is an asset; it’s a great thing! Let me say it again: diversity is a great thing! Our communities, institutions, and country need diverse perspectives as we identify health policy research questions that can inform solutions. They need research questions that are crafted with the community’s perspective in mind, using approaches where community members’ voices are centered, and power is shared.??

It is indisputable that the disproportionate burden of conditions that lead to poor health, as well as the health outcomes themselves, are borne by individuals and communities marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, zip code, or other factors, as well as the intersection of these identities. As stated in last year’s Call for Applications for HPRS, “That is why increasing the number of doctoral students who can bring their identity or lived experiences to inform their research and practice is a focus of this program.”?

In January 2025, the Call for Applications for the final HPRS cohort, our ninth, will be released. We will welcome our final group of 40 scholars in September 2025. At the end of our journey in 2029, I hope that I and others will look back and celebrate the steps we have taken together to achieve health equity. The steps that we have taken to advance the health, opportunity, power, and lives of the communities that we honor this month, and so many more. I hope that we will be able to say that we took the baton passed to us, journeyed well, and then purposefully passed the baton on to the next generation of leaders who are committed to advancing health equity in the U.S.??

I am honored to lead the HPRS National Program Center and to chair the Department of Health Policy and Management where it is housed and where, I am proud to say, HPRS alumni like Andrew Anderson and Mudia Uzzi are now faculty. I am grateful for the team that runs this impactful program and for the alumni who have recruited and served as mentors to other scholars. We are all deeply committed to not only supporting individual scholars as they lean into their leadership, but also building a long line of diverse, determined researchers who strive for a more equitable and safer world where everyone thrives.?