Evidence. Outreach. Action.

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Today’s population health challenges are complex. Addressing these challenges and building environments that value and promote health for everyone requires expertise from multiple scientific disciplines and public and private partners.

Guided by the principles of scientific rigor, equity, justice, community engagement, and multidisciplinary and multi-institution collaboration, the Lerner Center’s mission is to improve population and community health through research, education, outreach and health promotion programming focused on the social, spatial and structural determinants of physical, mental and behavioral health and health disparities.

With faculty affiliates from public health, sociology, psychology, economics, medicine and public administration, the Lerner Center’s approach to research is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.

Established in 2011 with an endowment from Sid and Helaine Lerner, the center fulfills its mission through the interrelated pillars of research, education, advocacy and action.

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Student Opportunities

A New Tool for Handling Multiracial and Multi-Identity Data in Health Research

Gabriel J. Merrin

This brief introduces CATAcode, a free software tool that helps researchers handle check-all-that-apply demographic data more thoughtfully. The tool reveals how coding decisions dramatically affect who is represented in research—decisions that inform health policy and resource allocation.

February 2026 | Download Brief

How Do State Labor Policies Impact Disability for Latino Adults in the U.S.?

Marc A. Garcia, Blakelee Kemp, and Erin Bisesti

This brief describes how these policies influence disability rates among Latino adults aged 45-85 in the United States. The authors find that, from 2000 to 2016, Latino disability rates were lower in states with more worker-friendly labor protections. The disability rate among Latinos was 21.6% in states with the most conservative labor policies compared to 17.6% in states with the most liberal policies.

March 2026 | Download Brief

Pandemic Mask Mandates and Closures Were Linked to Increased Gun Violence

Douglas A. Wolf, Emily W. Wiemers, Iliya Gutin, Jennifer Karas Montez, and Shannon M. Monnat

This brief examines how masking requirements and activity restrictions were associated with gun violence across U.S. counties. The authors find that counties’ indoor masking requirements were linked to a 28% increase in gun violence, while business closures and restrictions were associated with a 4.2% increase.

January 2026 | Download Brief

Don't miss Lerner Center's Population Health Brief Series that presents population health research findings to inform the public and policymakers.

Research Projects

Research by Lerner affiliates is regularly funded by the National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation and many other federal agencies and foundations. The Lerner Center also funds population health research at Syracuse University through its Faculty Fellows Program.

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Student Opportunities

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student at Syracuse University interested in population and community health? Do you seek a career with meaning and purpose?

The Lerner Center provides distinctive experience that combines traditional and applied training in population health and community health research and engagement to address pressing local, regional and national health problems and reduce health inequities—from academic certificates, to internships, to service learning opportunities and more.

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