US State Policy Polarization and Population Health Event

Join us for this webinar from Professor Jennifer Karas Montez on how policy polarization has led to troubling trends in US life expectancy. We will explore the shifts in the balance of policymaking power, the forces behind such changes, and how population health has been affected as a result.

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Jennifer Karas Montez is a Professor of Sociology, the Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, Director of the NIA-funded Center for Aging and Policy Studies, and Co-Director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University. Her research investigates trends and disparities in population health since the 1980s and the growing influence of US state policies and politics on those outcomes. A major focus of her work has examined why health trends are particularly worrisome for women, for people without a college degree, and for those living in states in the South and Midwest. Her research on these topics has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, NPR, and CNN. It has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and National Science Foundation. Montez received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and did her postdoctoral training as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at Harvard University.