About the Center for Health and Wellbeing

Professor Bryan Grenfell teaching class

The Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW) fosters research and teaching on the multiple aspects of health and wellbeing in both developed and developing countries. The Center’s goals are to understand the determinants of health and wellbeing, the role that public policy plays in shaping the quality of people’s lives, and to educate undergraduates and graduate students who aspire to careers in health and health policy.

CHW was founded in 2000 by Professor Christina Paxson, former Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and current President of Brown University. Professors Janet Currie and Kate Ho currently serve as co-directors of the Center, and Gilbert Collins serves as the Center’s associate director.

Housed within the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Center offers two academic programs: the undergraduate Minor in Global Health and Health Policy (GHP) and the graduate Certificate in Health and Health Policy (HHP). Also under the CHW umbrella are the Program on U.S. Health Policy, which sponsors research and activities addressing aspects of domestic health care and health policy, and the State Health and Value Strategies program, which assists states with health reform implementation and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Center is proud to host many health-focused events on campus, ranging from its monthly global health colloquium series, lunch seminar series, and dinner talks to larger workshops and conferences.  Every year, the Center sponsors health-focused research initiatives by Princeton faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students, and also hosts several visiting professors and graduate students from domestic and international partners for a semester- or year-long stay on the Princeton campus. The Center offers a wide range of fully-funded summer internships for Princeton students with host partners around the world through its Internships in Global Health program.   

Global Health Program

The Global Health Program generates the scholarship fundamental to health improvements, and educates students who will become leaders in the fields of health and health care. Its defining elements are a cross-disciplinary approach, hands-on field research and a focus on the policy dimensions of global health.

Multidisciplinary Projects

CHW supports multidisciplinary research projects on the multiple aspects of health and wellbeing. Primary research partners include: 

State Health and Value Strategies

State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS) is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program committed to providing technical assistance to support state efforts to enhance the quality and value of health care by improving population health and reforming the delivery of health care services. Housed within CHW, SHVS connects states with experts and their peers to develop tools to undertake new reform initiatives.

Health and Health Policy Program

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs offers a Certificate in Health and Health Policy, sponsored by the Center for Health and Wellbeing. The Certificate trains graduate students for careers in health-related areas in the public and not-for-profit sectors.

Program on U.S. Health Policy

CHW’s Program on U.S. Health Policy sponsors research and activities addressing aspects of domestic health care and health policy. The Program supports innovative faculty and student research, conferences, policy forums and special issues in health policy journals.