Our Mission
The Center for Health and Community (CHC) advances individual and population health through teaching and research that spans basic, clinical, and translational science centered on the social and behavioral drivers of health and health equity.
Established in 1998, the CHC has served as a beacon for social and behavioral scientists at UCSF. Research conducted under the CHC umbrella has fostered wide recognition of the term “social determinants of health (SDoH)” and helped to expand the scope and depth of research on SDoH.
The CHC has served as a center of gravity for researchers,
practitioners, and policy makers committed to understanding and improving the social, psychological, and behavioral processes that drive health and health equity. The research carried out by CHC affiliates spans the translational research continuum. Researchers employ theory-informed observational and experimental methods to identify the causal paths from social conditions to health and to develop and implement novel social, psychological, and behavioral interventions to improve health and health care.
The CHC is also an advocate and leader at the campus level for the social and behavioral sciences at UCSF, amplifying and reinforcing the need to incorporate social and behavioral sciences into largely biomedical endeavors, policies, and funding opportunities. Finally, the CHC works with medical educators to ensure that contemporary theories on SDoH and their mechanisms are included in the medical curriculum.