About Our Lab

Urban health is an evolving area of research, education, practice, and policymaking. Students are in a strong position to be part of these developing activities to advance the evidence base on research, implementation and evaluation in urban health.

The Global Action for Urban Health Lab, co-developed by Dr. Jo Boufford, Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff, and Dr. Tom Kirchner, provides a space for students both within and outside of New York University’s School of Global Public Health (GPH) to collaborate on various projects around urban health worldwide.

Listen to Dr. Boufford discuss urban health and the urban health lab at our first annual webinar:

The primary goals of this lab are for students to:

    1. Learn about the role of cities in global health and the role of urban governance in health, including policy approaches both across agencies and in public-private partnerships in the context of the SDGs and UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda.
    2. Develop a network of academic programs, faculty, and students across NYU focusing on urban health.
    3. Engage with UN agencies and national/municipal governments, international and domestic NGOs, urban health researchers, practitioners and policymakers worldwide.
    4. Develop skills for data collection, analysis and project implementation of priority urban health programs from collaborating organizations.
    5. Build on the platform of the International Society for Urban Health as a global network of researchers, educators, practitioners and policymakers committed to improving health and health equity in cities.

The Global Action for Urban Health Lab provides a platform for both individual and team activities with undergraduate and graduate students from different disciplines and areas of interest from GPH and graduate students from across other NYU schools and programs (e.g. Wagner School of Public Service, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), Tandon School of Engineering, Marron Institute of Urban Management, Furman Center, Department of Population Health at Langone, Stern School of Business, Institute for Public Knowledge, etc.).

See also: