Steven Alvarado, Department of Sociology, Cornell University

Recent neighborhood effects studies have largely focused on proximate associations between childhood ecological conditions and childhood outcomes. In contrast, Steven capitalizes on restricted data from the NLSY 1979 and NLSY Child and Young Adults cohorts to study how childhood neighborhood disadvantage impacts joblessness, income, obesity, and criminal justice contact in adulthood. 

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to welcome five new faculty affiliates!

• Kim England – Professor, Geography, University of Washington. England researches patterns of transnational migration for care labor (domestic workers, nannies, health workers) and its implications for social reproduction and inequality.
• Carmen Gonzalez – Assistant Professor, Communication, University of Washington. Gonzalez researches the communication practices of immigrant and minority populations in the contexts of health promotion and civic engagement.
• Jane Lee - Assistant Professor, Social Work, University of Washington. Lee researches the role migration plays in shaping the health and well-being of immigrant populations.
• Melanie Martin - Martin is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University and will join UW Anthropology in 2018. Martin researches growth, health, and reproductive outcomes across the life course in relation to breastfeeding practices, diet, and microbial exposures.
• Ali Mokdad - Director of Middle Eastern Initiatives, Professor of Global Health, Epidemiology & Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. Dr. Mokdad researches chronic diseases, emergency and refugee health, and is an expert in surveillance and survey methodologies.  Currently, he serves as the Vice Chair of the UW’s Population Health Initiative.

CSDE Fellow Michael Esposito and Trainee Victoria Sass presented papers at the 3rd Annual Interdisciplinary Population Health Research Conference “Improving Population Health: Now, Across People’s Lives, and Across Generations to Come,” which took place from October 2-4 in Austin, Texas. Esposito--the recipient of one of CSDE’s four individual Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) memberships--presented the paper “Race, Place and Deaths Involving Suicide,” which he co-authored with affiliate Hedwig Lee and other colleagues. Sass presented the paper "The Effects of Air Pollution on Individual Psychological Distress," which she co-authored along with affiliates Kyle Crowder and Anjum Hajat, former CSDE Fellow Nicole Kravtiz-Wirtz, and colleagues Steven M. Karceski and David Takeuchi.

Affiliate Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, co-authored an accompanying editorial to a recent UC Berkeley study that relates Nevada gun shows to gun violence in California. The study found that firearm-related injuries and deaths increase in California within two weeks of a gun show in Nevada, in regions within driving distance of the show. Interestingly, the same effect does not occur following California gun shows. These outcomes may be attributable to differences in California and Nevada’s respective gun laws; while the former has more stringent regulations and requires background checks at gun shows, the latter does not. In the editorial, which was referenced last week in Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times articles, Rowhani-Rahbar and UW Professor of Pediatrics Frederick Rivara address the implications of the study for federal policy.

Affiliate Dan Goldhaber, Director of the UW Center for Education Data & Research, was recently quoted in an Education Week article about The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s new focus on K-12 education. The Foundation has pledged nearly $1.7 billion towards education initiatives over the next five years, approximately 60% of which will be centered on building networks of existing schools and developing improved curricula. Regarding the Foundation’s most recent shift in focus and historical challenges in improving learning outcomes for students on a broad scale, Goldhaber said, “My sense is that the foundation has had bigger tangible impacts on affecting health outcomes around the world than they have in education, and they’ve been at it for a while.”