Bloomberg American Health Initiative Awards 11 Mid-Year Grants to Advance Public Health Research

The Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has awarded more than $300,000 to support faculty members in investigating and advancing public health solutions that benefit communities across the country. Each Mid-Year Grant offers up to $30,000 for projects that align with one of the Initiative’s five focus areas: adolescent health, addiction and overdose, food systems for health, environmental health, and violence.

In past years, faculty have used these grants to strengthen systems supporting adolescent mental health, examine how the racial composition of police departments affects violence, improve food system resilience, and more. This year’s funded projects will focus on a range of topics—from promoting youth well-being and assessing barriers to food access, to implementing strategies to reduce youth suicide rates in native communities.

Projects funded in April 2025 include:

• Assessing Baltimore Area Residents’ Perspectives on Drug-Related Services to Inform the City’s Overdose Response: This project, led by Sachini Bandara, PhD ’18, MS and Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD '15, will support a partnership between Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office to add a survey module on drug use and overdose prevention to the Baltimore Area Survey to assess views on drug use and overdose prevention related topics.
• Bringing Our Minds and Hearts Together to Promote Our Children’s Well-Being Through Storytelling: This project, led by Victoria M. O'Keefe, PhD, MS, will advance a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, Cherokee Nation, and a local Community Advisory Board, to develop and implement an Indigenous storybook intervention aimed at preventing substance use and promoting child mental health and well-being.
• Developing an Implementation Science Massive Open Online Course for Building Capacity to Bridge National Evidence-to-Practice Gaps: This project, led by Christopher G Kemp, PhD, MPH, will create a first-of-its-kind accessible Implementation Science Massive Open Online Course to disseminate methods and tools that help public health practitioners close evidence-to-practice gaps across key issue areas.
• Educator and Youth Perspectives on Students’ Mental Health Education: Assess, Advocate, and Support: This project, led by Elli Leontsini, MD, MPH ‘88, will support a school and community partnership to advance comprehensive mental health education in California middle and high schools.
• Evaluating the Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes on Perinatal Outcomes: A Study Across Five American Cities: This project, led by Dana Sarnak, PhD '21, MPH, will evaluate how beverage tax policies impact perinatal outcomes and translate findings into policy-relevant messages for stakeholders.
• Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for State Health Departments: In partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Sonia Angell, MD, MPH, will adapt an existing food system resilience guide for use by state health departments to strengthen public health responses and promote equity in food systems.
• Making the Environmental Public Health Tracking Training Module Accessible: This project, led by Megan Latshaw, PhD ’05, MHS ’01, will update and publish an online training module to make environmental public health tracking tools more accessible to community members and professionals. These tools provide opportunities to examine data and maps related to environmental hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, and related health effects.
• New Hope: From Evidence to Implementation: This project, led by Francene Larzelere, PhD, MS, will support the development and implementation of a suicide prevention intervention for Indigenous youth in partnership with tribal communities.
• Nutritious Retail Food Donations: Assessing Barriers, Best Practices, and Policy Implications: This project, led by Roni Neff, PhD '06, ScM, will assess retail food donation practices to identify barriers and opportunities for aligning with food bank nutrition goals and informing policy recommendations.
• Strengthening Families, Preventing Violence: Adapting Evidence-Based Support for Unaccompanied Migrant Youth in the United States: This project, led by Kathryn Falb, ScD, MHS ’07 and a community organization, will adapt and pilot a family strengthening program developed in humanitarian settings to support the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied migrant youth and their sponsors.
• The Lifetime Economic Burden of Sexual Violence in Minnesota: This project, led by Michele R. Decker, ScD, MPH, Kristin Bevilacqua, PhD, and Bloomberg Fellow Caroline Palmer, JD, MPH ’23 will estimate the lifetime economic burden of sexual violence in Minnesota to support state-level prevention planning and investment.

These grants play a critical role in supporting faculty as they assess past initiatives and evaluate the effectiveness of public health strategies. By grounding their work in community needs and real-world contexts, researchers are better equipped to identify sustainable solutions. This ongoing cycle of evaluation and innovation strengthens the evidence base for public health action and informs efforts to create lasting change.