The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working to build a Culture of Health.
Since 1972, RWJF has supported research and programs to uncover the many factors that impact health, and enable people and communities to be as healthy as possible. Working alongside public health leaders, entrepreneurs, research scientists, policymakers and community leaders, the Foundation is committed to ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to achieve better health where we live, learn, work and play.
Eight leading philanthropic organizations announce an unprecedented collaborative fund that will invest in care for all with respect and equity, creating quality, affordable care with fair wages and benefits for care workers.
Learn moreEliminating health disparities will require a movement away from disparities as the focus of research and toward a research agenda centered on achieving racial equity by dismantling structural racism. Perspectives from RWJF Alumna Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO Richard Besser, and Trustee David Williams.
Read the NEJM articleTobacco is responsible for more than 1,000 deaths per day and disproportionately affects people in communities of color and those with low incomes. When it comes to achieving health equity, there is no substitute for federal action. The FDA has the authority and evidence base to ban menthol cigarettes and sharply reduce nicotine levels in all cigarettes. Let's hope it has found the will to do so.
As both parents and pediatricians, RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser and Executive Vice President Julie Morita stress the need to redouble our efforts to keep children safe and offer three fundamental steps to mitigate the pandemic’s effects on children.
In politics today, language is often weaponized in an attempt to end the discussion and blunt any policy changes. We cannot let this happen with the concept of a more equitable nation, pens RWJF Executive Vice President Julie Morita. We need health equity in America in the same way that we need clean water, nutritious foods, safe streets and good schools.
President and CEO Richard Besser and Executive Vice President Julie Morita, like many people across the country, had questions before recently getting their first COVID-19 shots. They needed answers before rolling up their own sleeves and recommending COVID-19 vaccines to family and friends. We need to give every person in this country the space, and grace, to make up their minds. After all, they write, trust must be earned.
The American Rescue Plan Act provides hope for more than 100 million people, yet if we believe in an America in which everyone has opportunity and every person has equal value, our work is far from complete, pens RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser. Even if the pandemic were to end this year, the people for whom the legislation’s provisions are a lifeline still will be living in a nation steeped in inequities that cannot be eliminated with a single act of Congress, no matter how vast.
Melissa Blair
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation media@rwjf.org or (609) 627-5937
For general inquiries, please contact our main number:
U.S. Toll Free: (877) 843-7953
International: +1 (609) 627-6000
From the County Health Rankings and 500 Cities to the City Health Dashboard, browse data resources to support health journalism, no matter what your beat.
The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Fixing the Children’s Mental Health Crisis: It Takes a Community —U.S. News & World Report
People Aren’t ‘Addicted’ to Wearing Masks, They’re Traumatized —VICE