AREAS OF RESEARCH
Health Equity, Mental Health & Aging
SP2 Labs and Faculty seek to understand diverse social and environmental factors affecting health and well-being within underserved populations, geriatric patients, individuals with mental illness, and those at elevated risk for disease.
Featured Centers
Health Equity Lab
FEATURED FACULTY
Femida Handy, PhD
Professor; PhD, York (Canada), 1995. Volunteering; volunteering & health; global philanthropy; corporate social responsibility; environmental habitus.
FEATURED FACULTY
Phyllis Solomon, PhD
Professor; PhD, Case Western Reserve, 1978. Social work research methods; mental health policy and service delivery systems; severely mentally disabled persons and their families.
FEATURED FACULTY
Tamara J. Cadet, PhD, LICSW, MPH
Associate Professor; PhD, Simmons College. Health social work; health literacy; shared-decision-making; social determinants of health; evidence-based health promotion interventions in the community; facilitators and barriers to reducing disparities in preventative health behaviors; advancing health equity; health care service utilization among vulnerable populations with a focus on oncology and gerontology.
FEATURED FACULTY
Abigail (Abby) M. Ross, LICSW, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor; PhD, Boston University. Intervention research, implementation science, mental health, interprofessional practice, public health social work, youth suicide prevention, social care integration, evidence-based practice.
FEATURED FACULTY
Allison Werner-Lin, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Chicago, 2005. Psychosocial oncology; genetics and genomics; assisted reproductive technology; bioethics; emerging adulthood; medical family therapy; qualitative health research.
Related News
Student Life
08/18
SP2 announces “The Anxious Generation” as One Book, One SP2 selection
Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) has announced the selection of “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt as its 2025 – 2026 One Book, One SP2 choice.
Faculty & Research
08/11
Thriving while surviving: Understanding the social needs of cancer survivors
SP2 researchers and their colleagues have investigated how unmet social needs impact the health and well-being of U.S. cancer survivors. Their findings are relevant for other serious chronic illnesses.
Faculty & Research
04/07
New study explores how economic stressors and vaccination shaped mental health during the pandemic
A new paper co-authored by SP2's Dr. Chenyi Ma explores the impact of job loss, food insecurity, and COVID-19 vaccination on anxiety levels among different demographic groups in the United States during the pandemic.