Consistent with the academic mission of Brown University, our faculty teach in traditional classroom settings within the school and/or through mentorship of undergraduate, MPH, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. We conduct research in collaboration with community partners and research participants from the local, regional, and global community. Most of our full time faculty have their primary academic appointment within the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health.
Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity
Our Center
The mission of the Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity is to improve health and advance health equity through interdisciplinary and community-engaged research, education and advocacy at the structural, organizational, interpersonal, and individual levels.
Brown University
Box G-121-4
Providence, RI 02912
401-863-6550
Our Center
The mission of the Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity is to improve health and advance health equity through interdisciplinary and community-engaged research, education and advocacy at the structural, organizational, interpersonal, and individual levels.
Core themes that tie us together
Community Engagement
CHPHE works closely with communities to understand their assets and needs to create solutions together. By partnering with local leaders and organizations, we make sure our research supports real change where it's needed most and advancing health equity.
Behavioral Change
Our center designs programs that help people build healthier habits, such as being more active or reducing the risk of overdose and other harms related to substance use. We use practical tools and real world testing to find what truly helps people make lasting changes.
Health Equity
Health Equity is at the heart of everything we do. CHPHE focuses on removing barriers, like unfair policies, discrimination, and lack of access so that everyone, especially communities who have been overlooked, has a fair chance to live a healthy life.
Our Mission
Our researchers bring together behavioral and epidemiological science with community engagement to design interventions that advance health and well-being and address the systems and policies that drive inequities across communities. Its work is interdisciplinary, addressing health at multiple levels of society and spans the full pipeline: from discovery science, to developing and testing interventions, to translating evidence into policies that shape practice and impact lives.
Our research center serves as a bridge, linking communities, science, and policy, to advance health equity and promote well-being for everyone, in every community.
Interim Director
Current projects reflect this breadth. Studies on structural discrimination and health inequities examine how racially discriminatory state laws and interpersonal bias in health care contribute to premature death and barriers to preventive services among Black, Latinex, and LGBTQ+ communities. Environmental health research through Project Green Space explores how access to parks and greenery supports children’s mental health, cognitive development, and physical activity. Other teams are testing innovative, culturally tailored interventions to promote physical activity among Latinas, evaluate financial incentives for exercise through health plans, and implement harm reduction strategies to prevent stimulant-involved overdose deaths. Finally, research on the Eat Well, Be Well program assesses how statewide fruit and vegetable incentives can improve nutrition and food equity among SNAP participants in Rhode Island.
Together, these studies exemplify the center's commitment to advancing rigorous, community-driven, and policy-relevant science that improves population health and reduces inequities.
Center History
We were founded as a center in the Brown University Program in Public Health in 2002.
Brown University
Box G-121-4
Providence, RI 02912
401-863-6550