Advancing Interdisciplinary Research and Action on Health and Education Disparities

January 24, 2008
University of Minnesota School of Public Health

The goal of this day-long working symposium and subsequent research is to explain and comprehensively understand the relationships among schools, neighborhoods and health, improving both the opportunities and outcomes of its inhabitants. We will be linking University researchers from across a wide array of disciplines, policy makers and community partner organizations to advance research on the root causes of, and potential remedies for, health and educational disparities. Our agenda will focus on "upstream" factors known to affect health and educational outcomes of children and their families, such as neighborhood conditions, racial segregation, school-district boundaries, crime, and access to quality preventive health care. The long-term aim of this symposium is to set the stage for increased collaborative research by participants and to lead directly to both intervention research and public policy initiatives that translate results into action.

Welcome, Mary Hearst, Dean John Finnegan, J. Michael Oakes

Keynote: Changing Racial Compositions: Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Reynolds Farley (download the audio only)

Question and Answer

Racial Disparities in the Indian Population, Melanie Peterson-Hickey (download the audio only)

Health Disparities in the Twin Cities, Kola Okuyemi (download the audio only)

Wealth and African Americans, Rose Brewer

Twin Cities Neighborhoods, William Craig (download the audio only)

School and Neighborhood Segregation: Achievement, Health, Credit and Incarceration, Myron Orfield (download the audio only)

Spatial Analysis for Land Use, Health and Population Dynamics, Steve Manson (download the audio only)

Early Childhood Development and Life Chances, Scott McConnell (download the audio only)

Infant Mortality, Segregation and Structural Confounding, Mary Hearst (download the audio only)

SHAPE Data, Sheldon Swaney and Tim Zimmerman (download the audio only)

Neighborhood Effects Interventions, Stefanie DeLuca (download the audio only)

Closing Remarks and Evaluations J. Michael Oakes, Mary Hearst, et al.

This symposium was funded by the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health and the Children Youth and Family Consortium and organized by the Social Epi Workgroup.