About
We are an interdisciplinary research team of historians, social-behavioral scientists , and statisticians, merging expertise in the study of American society, population health , and cutting-edge data science . Through our collaborations, we aim to clarify the social drivers and biological mechanisms that underlie variation in population health.
Our Leadership
Margaret T. Hicken
Landscapes Program Director, spatial patterns in social factors, air pollution, population health
About Margaret
Through my entire research program, I am committed to clarifying the social causes and biological mechanisms underlying population patterns in health. The major hallmark of my research is the integration of scientific knowledge from across disciplines, as this transdisciplinary approach allows for creative and innovative insights into the root drivers of these patterns. I have built, from the ground up, a research program around my conceptual framework that integrates humanist and social science scholarship on US society to the biological literature on stress biology, molecular mechanisms, and health. For example, my research suggests that social exposures amplify the health impact of environmental exposures, providing important evidence that multiple features of American society operate together to drive population health patterns.
Hedy Lee
Co-Investigator, criminal legal system, population health
About Hedy
Hedwig (Hedy) Lee is broadly interested in the social determinants and consequences of population health. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009. After receiving her PhD, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Michigan from 2009 to 2011. Her recent work examines the impact of American social structure features, such as family and the carceral system, and population health.