This is part of a series introducing programs in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Human Capital Portfolio. The mission of the RWJF Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College is to provide leadership in health policy education along with research and reform on a national, state and local level while continually supporting the historic mission of Meharry Medical College: to improve the health and health care of minority and underserved communities.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College connects scholars to address health policy solutions, bridging experiences and disciplines from sociology, economics and political science. Each one travels a different road.

Cheryl Chun’s path to medical school began in a high school math classroom.

Teaching in DC public schools taught Cheryl Chun important lessons. Some of her best students missed class while waiting in line at a free clinic with a sick, non-English speaking parent, to assist with translation. Another student was too exhausted to attend class after waiting all night in an emergency room to receive treatment for an asthma attack. Chun found students’ lack of health care access hurt their education.

“I had students who wanted to be in class but the realities of their lives just got in the way,” Chun explained.  Watching her students struggle with access to good health and the myriad of social and economic inequalities that restricted their educational access convinced Chun, 28, to return to school to become a physician. She was committed to practicing in a medically underserved community. So, Chun chose the Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College, where social scientists, policy experts and medical professionals grapple with complex social conditions in search of solutions rooted in health equity.

Wizdom Powell, PhD, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health & Society Scholar (2005-2007) has been chosen for the prestigious White House Fellows program. The nonpartisan program is designed to offer hands-on, up-close experience in government, with participants working at senior levels of the Executive Branch of the federal government. According to the White House, “Selected individuals typically spend a year working as a full-time, paid Fellow to senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with renowned leaders from the private and public sectors, and trips to study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally.”

Powell is currently on leave from her post as an assistant professor of health behavior and health education at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, and from her position as a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center faculty member. Her research focuses on the impact of neighborhood, health care and socioeconomic resources on racial health disparities, and she has focused particularly on health disparities among African American men. Earlier this year, she presented findings from her recent work at a gathering of current and alumni Health & Society Scholars at the National Institutes of Health.

Powell will spend her fellowship at the U.S. Department of Defense.

She is the second Health & Society Scholar to be named to the program, following in the footsteps of Mehret Mandefro, MD, MSc, from the 2007-2009 cohort, who served in the Department of Veterans Affairs as part of the 2009-2010 class of White House Fellows. In addition, four RWJF Clinical Scholars have served as White House Fellows.

RWJF Scholars have been in the news recently. Following the American Psychiatric Nurses Association annual conference, MedScape featured expert interviews with 2008-2011 RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars Angela Amar, Ph.D., R.N., and Nancy Hanrahan, Ph.D., R.N. Read the interviews and conference coverage.

In addition, RWJF Clinical Scholars program assistant director, Marcella Nunez Smith, M.D., M.H.S., was profiled in the “Kudos Corner” column of the December issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Congratulations to the following RWJF Scholar alumni on their recent publications:

Investigator in Health Policy Research David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. (2002) has two articles in the September 29, 2010 issue of Health Affairs, How Health Plans, Health Systems, and Others in the Private Sector Can Stimulate 'Meaningful Use', and Beacon Communities Aim to Use Health Information Technology to Transform the Delivery of Care.

Investigator in Health Policy Research Alan Garber, M.D., Ph.D. (2003) has an article in the October 29, 2010 Health Affairs, The Role of Costs in Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Investigator in Health Policy Research Alan Gerber, Ph.D. (2008) is also in the October 29, 2010 Health Affairs, with A National Survey Reveals Public Skepticism About Research-Based Treatment Guidelines, and The Public Wants Information, Not Board Mandates, From Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Physician Faculty Scholar Ashish Jha, M.D., M.P.H. (2006-2009), has had four new articles published in recent months: The Effect of Financial Incentives on Hospitals That Serve Poor Patients, in the Annals of Internal Medicine, September 7, 2010; Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records: The Road Ahead, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), October 20, 2010; A Progress Report on Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals, in Health Affairs, October 29, 2010; and The Concentration of Hospital Care for Black Veterans in Veterans Affairs Hospitals: Implications for Clinical Outcomes, in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, November-December, 2010

Health Policy Fellow (2006-2007) and Clinical Scholar (1983-1985) Art Kellermann, M.D., M.P.H., published Where Americans Get Acute Care: Increasingly, It's Not at Their Doctor's Office, in the September 29, 2010 issue of Health Affairs.

Aaron Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., an RWJF Investigator in Health Policy Research (2009), published

Fighting Antibiotic Resistance: Marrying New Financial Incentives to Meeting Public Health Goals, in the September 29, 1010 issue of Health Affairs and Designing Comparative Effectiveness Research on Prescription Drugs: Lessons From the Clinical Trial Literature, in the October 29, 2010 issue of Health Affairs.

Michelle Mello, J.D., Ph.D., M.Phil., an RWJF Investigator in Health Policy Research (2007) has two new articles in the September 29, 2010 issue of Health Affairs: The Flaws in State ‘Apology’ and ‘Disclosure’ Laws Dilute Their Intended Impact on Malpractice Suits, and National Costs of the Medical Liability System, Physicians’ Fears of Malpractice Lawsuits Are Not Assuaged By Tort Reforms.