Racial Justice Program
About the Program
The FXB Center aims to create an actionable field of scholarship examining the impact of structural racism on health and builds ties with our neighbors – community organizations, decision-makers, media, and government partners – to ensure this research appears not only in academic journals but is also communicated in ways that help guide change.
The FXB Center’s Structural Racism Initiative for Diversity with Equity (STRIDE) uses practice-oriented research to deepen the knowledge base and to fill gaps in content and methodology. Its activities have included support for post-doctoral research on how racism harms health, student internships with community organizations, and a project focused on the potential public health impact of monetary reparations for African enslavement.
Research brings together scholars and practitioners to investigate several mutually reinforcing areas through which racial health inequities are perpetuated. Topics include:
- Addressing the adverse perinatal impacts for Black-birthing people residing in resource-deprived neighborhoods over their life course
- Impact of parental incarceration on children
- Racial bias training in medical education and clinical practice, race-based medicine, algorithmic bias, and health policy.
- Housing discrimination and neighborhood segregation
- Environmental practices and climate justice
- Novel ways of monitoring health outcomes on the neighborhood level using wastewater sampling
Beyond the moral imperative of achieving equity, what public health can add to the call to end structural racism is data that will inform life-saving actions and decisions at the structural level. The FXB Center believes research on structural racism can help quantify the cost of inaction and provide the needed evidence to reform existing structures and practices.
Meet the Fellows, Research Associates, and Research Scientists
Meet the Research Advisors
Meet the Principal Investigator
Community-based Internship Placements
Community-based internship placements are a component of the FXB Center’s STRIDE Program designed to build, strengthen, and sustain our relationships with communities working to address structural racism in health. Through these internships, we place doctoral students in community-driven projects focused on combating the various ways structural racism impacts health.
We prioritize partnerships with grassroots community-based organizations and community-based groups in the Greater Boston area, while also collaborating with a diverse range of organizations, including national advocacy groups and local public health departments. This internship opportunity provides students with hands-on experience in community-engaged practice while contributing to meaningful, community-led efforts toward racial and social justice.
Further Racial Justice Work
Recent Publications & Press
Reproductive rights at the U.S. state level and medication access for pregnant women with opioid use, Social Science & Medicine, February 2025, Ichiro Kawachi (Co-Author)
Prevalence of and Inequities in Poor Mental Health Across 3 US Surveys, 2011 to 2022, JAMA Network Open, January 15, David R. Williams (Co-Author)
Examining changes in fatal violence against women after bail reform in New Jersey, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, January 13, Jaquelyn L. Jahn (Co-Author)
How reparations could affect Black mortality (Jourdyn A. Lawrence quoted, Harvard Public Health, January 7, 2025)
Correlates of COVID-19 conspiracy theory beliefs in Japan: A cross-sectional study of 28,175 residents, PLOS One, December 30, Ichiro Kawachi (Co-Author)
Aletha Maybank to step down as AMA’s chief health equity officer (Mary T. Bassett quoted, STAT, December 30, 2024)
Dental Clinic Deserts in the US: Spatial Accessibility Analysis, JAMA Network Open, December 23, Ichiro Kawachi (Co-Author)
Home Visits and the Use of Routine and Emergency Postpartum Care Among Low-Income People: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial, JAMA Network Open, December 23, Alecia McGregor (Co-Author)
Culture as a Social Determinant of Health, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, December 19, Ichiro Kawachi (Co-Author)
Politicians, power, and the people’s health: US elections and state health outcomes, 2012–2024, Health Affairs Scholar, Volume 2, Issue 12, December 10, Nancy Krieger, Soroush Moallef, Ruchita Balasubramanian, Tori L. Cowger, Alecia J. McGregor, Mary T. Bassett (Co-Authors)
US health in historical context, The Lancet, December 7
Mary T. Bassett (Author)
Obstetric Care Access at Rural and Urban Hospitals in the United States, JAMA, December 4
Alecia McGregor (Co-Author)
Racial discrimination and cognitive function: An instrumental variable analysis, Social Science & Medicine, December 2024
Jourdyn A. Lawrence, Ichiro Kawachi (Co-Authors)
Reparations for African Enslavement in the U.S. and Black Survival Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, American Journal of Epidemiology, November 29, Jourdyn A. Lawrence, Jaquelyn L. Jahn, Justin M. Feldman, Natalia Linos, Mary T. Bassett (Co-Authors)
Fostering resilience in the face of adversity (David Williams, Brittney Francis quoted, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Featured News Stories 2024, November 14, 2024)
Talking About Incarceration History: Engaging Patients and Healthcare Providers in Communication, Journal of General Internal Medicine, October 31, Monik C. Botero (Co-Author)
Impact of Participation Bias on Disease Prevalence Estimation in the All of Us Research Program: A Case Study of Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke, medRxiv, October 19, Monik C. Botero (Co-Author)
Podcast explores what drives health disparities (Brittney Francis quoted, Tori Cowger mentioned, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health In the News 2024, October 16, 2024)
“Dorothy Roberts.” In Jipguep-Akhtar, M.-C., & Khan, N.M. (Eds.)., Fifty Key Scholars in Black Social Thought (1st ed.). Routledge. Fifty Key Scholars in Black Social Thought. Routledge, October 14, 2024, Marie V. Plaisime (Chapter Author)
School mask mandate study highlights challenges of using observational data to study effects of public health interventions (Tori Cowger quoted, ScienceNews Net, October 7, 2024)
Addressing the Health Impacts of Racism on Children and Youth: Equity Until Equality, Academic Pediatrics, September-October 2024, Marie V. Plaisime (Co-Author)
Racial Residential Segregation, Redlining, and Health, JAMA Internal Medicine, September 30, Mary T. Bassett (Author)
Improving COVID-19 wastewater surveillance to ensure equity (Tori Cowger, Ruchita Balasubramanian, Soroush Moallef, Mary T. Bassett, Nancy Krieger mentioned, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health In the News 2024, September 20, 2024)
Prolonged Boarding and Racial Discrimination and Dissatisfaction Among Emergency Department Patients, JAMA Network Open, September 16, Marie Plaisime, Bram Wispelwey (Co-Authors)
N.Y. can ease child poverty: Two former health commissioners lay out a plan (Mary T. Bassett co-authored, New York Daily News, September 15, 2024)
Francis, B. (2024), Higher Education with Dr B Fran [Biweekly audio podcast], Acast.
Visualizing Neighborhood COVID-19 Levels, Trends, and Inequities in Wastewater: An Equity-Centered Approach and Comparison to CDC Methods, Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, September 10, Tori L. Cowger, Soroush Moallef, Nancy Krieger, Mary T. Bassett (Co-Authors)