Lerner Center News

The One University Awards Ceremony, an annual event to honor members of the Syracuse University community who are making a difference through academics, scholarship, creative work and dedicated service, will be held Friday, April 21.

Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, believes the number of Onondaga County residents who lose coverage will be less than the 9.5% estimated by a federal government study. That’s because New York’s Medicaid and other public health insurance programs are more generous than those offered by many other states, she says.

Overall, grandmothers still take the lead in spending time with grandchildren, often rearranging their schedules to do so, says Madonna Harrington Meyer, University Professor and author of “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs” (NYU Press, 2014).

“Unfortunately,” says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs, “my own work suggests that cognitive decline can act as a barrier to SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] participation among older adults eligible for the program, due to the difficult administrative processes associated with demonstrating program eligibility.”

“The lack of access to food can make older Americans more socially isolated,” says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs.

"Recent data from the Department of Defense indicates that one in four service members were food insecure at the end of 2020," says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs.

"Screening for food insecurity can at least provide the clinician some sense of the risks their patients might be facing and their potential negative health consequences," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"There is a well-documented history in the U.S. of marginalizing people with IDD (intellectual or developmental disability). Our hope is that we will not add to that history, but will take the necessary steps to ensure that people with IDD are provided the opportunity to live and thrive in the midst of the ongoing pandemic," says Landes, associate professor of sociology.

University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez says “state policy knobs are a lever that we could use to really turn this country around and stop this alarming—just horrible when you think about it—increase in the risk of dying before age 65.”

Associate Professor Emily Wiemers is the principal investigator of the team that includes her Maxwell School colleague, Marc A. Garcia. 

"Moving On from Covid? Immunocompromised People Can’t," written by Associate Professor of Sociology Scott Landes, was published by the Hastings Center.

Asked about the White House’s assertion that “President Biden’s leadership” is responsible for the increase, Gary Engelhardt, professor of economics, tells CNN: “This assertion is incorrect.”

“State policies, which have been relatively ignored in research on explanations for U.S. mortality trends, turn out to be really important for understanding geographic disparities in mortality,” Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology, tells U.S. News & World Report.

If states had adopted liberal policies across the board, University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez and her co-authors calculated that 171,030 lives would have been saved in 2019 alone; on the flip side, conservative policies in all states would have led to an additional 217,635 working-age deaths.

"What happens when we think of social goods—those that contribute to human thriving? Is scale just as problematic in those cases, or might we use its powers for good?" asks Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“There might be a small drop in one or two years, but the long-term trend has been an increase,” says Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology. She was interviewed for the Grid article, "U.S. suicide rates rose again in 2021, ending a brief decline during the covid pandemic."

Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat was also interviewed for the story, "‘There Are Two Americas Now: One With a B.A. and One Without’." 

Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology, was interviewed for the Disability Scoop article, "COVID-19 Was Leading Killer Of People With Developmental Disabilities."

"COVID-19 Mortality Burden and Comorbidity Patterns Among Decedents with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the US," co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Scott Landes, was featured in the Syracuse.com article, "COVID-19 Mortality Burden and Comorbidity Patterns Among Decedents with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the US."