About Us
Our country’s unique ideal is centered around social and economic opportunity—the idea that anyone can rise up in social class, regardless of their background. However, for many, the American Dream has faded away in recent years. For others, it was never a reality. Our work examines how opportunity shapes our health and how health, in turn, drives opportunity. We use these scientific insights to identify interventions to improve health in the United States.
Our Mission
To conduct rigorous research that uncovers how social and economic opportunity affects our health, and to use these scientific insights to identify, develop, and test policies that can boost opportunity and improve health for all Americans.
Our Vision
A country where everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy, fulfilling life.
Our Approach
We focus on how social and economic opportunity—and the belief in a better future that comes with it—shapes the health of individuals and communities. Using advanced statistical methods and new data on economic mobility, we study the events and policies that expand or restrict people’s ability to dream for a better future and achieve those dreams. Our work shows that policies promoting social and opportunities can improve health, and that healthier people are better positioned to achieve upward mobility. We collaborate with policymakers, community leaders, and industry partners to ensure the evidence we generate drives meaningful change.
What We Do
Research
We conduct interdisciplinary research to understand how opportunity and health affect each other.
Interventions
We partner with community organizations, government, and industry to identify, design, and test interventions that can jointly boost opportunity and health.
Mentorship
Our team trains and mentor emerging scholars from a variety of disciplines interested in the nexus between opportunity and health.
Dissemination
We synthesize data and research on relationships between opportunity, policy, and health to help inform decision makers.
Driving Questions
What are the economic changes, social policies, and community characteristics that affect opportunity, hope, and health well-being?
What new interventions can we design and test based on our understanding of the link between opportunity to achieve our goal of increased opportunity and better health for all Americans?
The Opportunity for Health Team
Backstory
Opportunity for Health, founded in 2020, emerged from a pattern we observed repeatedly while caring for patients and reviewing social and economic data. Across the stories we heard and the trends we analyzed, one theme consistently stood out: greater opportunity—and the hope it creates for a better future—leads to better health. This insight held true in many different contexts, regions, and health conditions. Whether we were looking at the impacts of plant closures or automation, the effects of state and national policies on education or immigration, or broader shifts in community social and economic conditions, the central mechanism was always the same: health improves when opportunities expand and deteriorates when they erode. We expanded from carefully documenting these observations to intervening on them, working closely with community partners and government to test novel programs to boost opportunity and health.