UCLA Health Equity Challenge awards $100,000 in funding to student projects aimed at eliminating health inequities in Los Angeles
A competition co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has awarded $100,000 to students to implement health equity projects in LA.

After 10 weeks of working with mentors and community partners to turn their health equity ideas into full project proposals, two UCLA students were named the winners of the Health Equity Challenge, a competition presented by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and The MolinaCares Accord.
Angelica Johnsen and Alma Lopez were selected as the grand prize winners of the inaugural challenge, and their community partners, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and SHIELDS for Families, will receive $50,000 each to fund and implement their proposals, which both tackle critical mental health inequities.
“Health equity should never be an afterthought. It is the bedrock of public health. It is both a core value and a responsibility. And it starts right here in local communities,” said Dr. Kathryn Kietzman, director of the Health Equity Program at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
by Tiffany Lopes
Faculty Referenced by this Article

EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program

Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.

Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.
Related Content

More than half who aren’t vaccinated are still worried about side effects, according to findings by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, led by Dr. Ninez Ponce, professor of health policy and management.
Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Read Full Article
Finalists - who include four UCLA Fielding School of Public Health graduate or doctoral students - will develop proposals to address a health equity issue in California and two organizations will be awarded $50,000.
Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Read Full Article