Lab Member Khem Somsak Awarded Jardin & Weidenfeld-Hoffman Scholarships (2025) to Oxford

Khem Somsak, MPP ‘25 and a lab member, has been awarded the prestigious Jardine and Weidenfeld-Hoffman scholarships to attend University of Oxford this fall.

Khem is from a small seaside town in Thailand. He is graduating from Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Policy (MPP) and will begin another degree at Trinity College, Oxford focusing on Tropical Medicine. Before school, he was a data scientist at Boston Medical Center supporting opioid treatment programs. Outside of work, Khem is a part-time activist and founded a nonprofit advocating for Thai political refugees. He was also assistant campaign manager for a progressive candidate in Thailand’s 2023 election, where his all-volunteer team defeated the junta-backed incumbent. In his spare time, Khem enjoys practicing Chinese calligraphy, cooking for big crowds, and exploring Bangkok’s street food with his five siblings.

Prof. Marcella Alsan Named to STAT's 2025 STATUS List

Professor Marcella Alsan has been named to STAT’s 2025 STATUS List.

The 2025 STATUS List features 50 influential people shaping the future of health and life sciences across biotech, medicine, health care, policy, and health tech. Professor Alsan has been listed under Academia for her work on medical mistrust and how the legacy of discrimination perpetuates health inequality.

For more information see here for details, and find coverage of Professor Alsan’s past work on STAT, here and here.

Prof. Marcella Alsan Awarded the Humboldt Research Award

Professor Marcella Alsan has been awarded the Humboldt Research Award, an international prize in recognition of her academic record to date. 

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards each year to leading academics across disciplines “whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and beyond and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge academic achievements.” The Humboldt Research Award includes a €60,000 grant and an invitation to conduct a research project in collaboration with German scholars.  

Professor Alsan is the first serving Kennedy School professor to be granted the Humboldt Research Award since 2002. 

For more information, see this Harvard Gazette article, and this article by the Harvard Kennedy School.

Lab Member James Jolin Named a 2024 Gates Cambridge Scholar

James Jolin, ‘24 and a lab member, was named a 2024 Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge among 26 of the most academically outstanding and socially committed US citizens. This scholarship will support his study of Population Health Sciences at Cambridge in 2025.

Release: First cohort of 2024 Gates Cambridge Scholars announced

Bio: Biography | Gates Cambridge

Prof. Crystal Yang Awarded ALI’s Early Career Scholars Medal

The American Law Institute has announced that it will award its Early Career Scholars Medal to Professor Crystal S. Yang of Harvard Law School and Professor Leah Litman of the University of Michigan Law School. The award recognizes outstanding law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law. Two medalists are selected every other year.

For more information, see
ALI Announces Early Career Scholars: Leah Litman and Crystal S. Yang | American Law Institute
Crystal Yang honored with ALI’s Early Career Scholars Medal | Harvard Law School

Lab Members Attend the National Conference for the NCCHC

Project coordinator Nadia Huffman (right two) and graduate RA Nicky Joseph (right one)

In October, our project coordinator and research assistant traveled to Las Vegas to attend the National Conference for the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). Health care and correctional professionals from across the U.S. attend this conference to network with other professionals and learn from industry experts. The conference included over 100 presentations, a poster exhibit, keynote session, exhibit hall, and networking events. Our project coordinator and research assistant had the opportunity to attend sessions to learn from industry experts and connected with health and correctional professionals from across the U.S. They also took part of the poster exhibit where they had the opportunity to share information about our study on NCCHC accreditation and recruited experts in corrections and health care to complete a survey where they were asked to predict the outcomes of our study. Once our study concludes, we will compare these expert predictions to what our study finds.

Health Inequality Lab Receives PTEC Grant

We are thrilled to announce that we have been selected as a recipient of the Preparedness and Treatment Equity Coalition (PTEC) Health Inequities Research Grant. PTEC brings researchers, businesses, and advocates together to develop metrics-driven approaches to close health disparities and provide services to underserved communities. They aim to create evidence that can be used to reform health systems. 

The Health Inequality Lab will use this grant to study the intersection of the unequal distribution of disease and incarceration in the U.S, with a focus on Black and Latino men, a population that is especially disadvantaged in both disease burden and the likelihood of incarceration. Our project will explore the critical role that correctional health care can play in reducing racial disparities in hypertensive-related conditions, a leading cause of death for Black and Latino men. 

To learn more about PTEC click here.

Prof. Crystal Yang to Join the Russell Sage Foundation Advisory Committee

Professor Crystal Yang will be joining the Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) Advisory Committee: Behavioral Science and Decision Making, starting January 2023.

To learn more, see the Russell Sage Foundation and its Behavioral Science and Decision Making Program.

Prof. Marcella Alsan Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

Professor Marcella Alsan was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for her scholarly insights on understanding the origins of medical mistrust and the role it plays in understanding health disparities. Her work has shaped policy in addressing disparities through increasing health care workforce diversity and improving messaging in reaching historically marginalized and vulnerable populations.

To learn more about Professor Alsan’s work, see: HKS Professor Marcella Alsan elected to National Academy of Medicine.

For more information on this year’s elected members, see: National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members.

Prof. Crystal Yang Named the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law

Professor Crystal Yang was named the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, starting July 1, 2022.

To learn more about Professor Crystal Yang’s work, see: Crystal S. Yang | Harvard Law School.

Health Inequality Lab Receives RSF Grant

We are delighted to be selected to receive a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation for our project, "Reducing Racial Health Care Gaps via Physician Solidarity Signals." In this project, we will focus on the consequences of discrimination in criminal justice, one of the key institutions generating inequality and an issue of pressing public policy, on healthcare demand because the medical system plays an important role in addressing racial health inequality. We investigate whether counter signals made by healthcare professionals to indicate racial solidarity enhance actual healthcare demand. These findings will guide approaches for actors, specifically institutions, to proactively address the effects of structural racism.

To learn more about the Russell Sage Foundation, click here.

Prof. Marcella Alsan Awarded 2021 MacArthur Fellowship

Marcella Alsan, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Health Inequality Lab, was one of 25 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Fellowship. The fellowship, which was announced in late September, recognizes and supports her work studying the causes and consequences of health inequality.

To learn more about Professor Alsan’s work and how the fellowship will support the next stages of her research, see below for selected articles covering the fellowship announcement:

• MacArthur Foundation: “Marcella Alsan: Investigating the role that legacies of discrimination and resulting mistrust play in perpetuating racial disparities in health”

• Harvard Kennedy School: “Marcella Alsan awarded MacArthur Fellowship”

• Harvard Gazette: “A life’s mission sparked by disbelief over Tuskegee study”

• Harvard Crimson: “Harvard Kennedy School Professor Marcella Alsan Wins MacArthur Grant”

• J-PAL: “Marcella Alsan on her recent MacArthur Fellowship award and researching racial disparities in health”

• Quartz: “The work of two MacArthur fellows has been central to our understanding of Covid-19”

• Loyola Stritch School of Medicine: “Stritch alum awarded MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’”

For information on this year’s MacArthur fellowship awardees, including Professor Alsan, please see:

• New York Times: “MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 ‘Genius’ Grant Winners”

• Boston Globe: “25 MacArthur fellows awarded $625,000 in ‘genius grants’”

• National Public Radio: “This Year's MacArthur 'Genius Grants' Were Just Announced—Here's The Full Winner List”

Health Inequality Lab Receives JPAL Grant

Evaluating the Effect of NCCHC Accreditation on Health Care and Health outcomes in U.S. Jails, a Health Inequality Lab research project led by Professors Marcella Alsan and Crystal Yang, received the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) grant.

These funds will allow us to randomize the offer of health care accreditation via the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) to mid-sized jails. We hypothesize that the process of preparation, verification, and maintenance of accreditation will improve health care processes, inmate health outcomes, and satisfaction and retention among correctional staff, and potentially reduce recidivism, litigation, and health care costs for jails.

To learn more about the project, see The Effect of Accreditation of Healthcare in Jails on Processes and Inmate Health — Health Inequality Lab.

Detailed information on NCCHC and JPAL can be found at National Commission on Correctional Health Care and The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Prof. Crystal Yang Named Codirector of Economics of Crime Working Group

For more information, see: Crystal Yang Named Codirector of Economics of Crime Working Group and Economics of Crime | NBER.

Crystal Yang, a professor of law at the Harvard Law School and a research associate in the NBER Law and Economics Program, is a new codirector of the Economics of Crime Working Group. In this role she joins Philip J. Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago, who along with Justin McCrary of Columbia University launched the working group in 2007.

Prof. Marcella Alsan Speaks on Inequities and COVID-19

How is COVID-19 affecting marginalized communities? Marcella Alsan, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Health Inequality Lab, discussed how existing health disparities have been exacerbated by the pandemic at a Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy talk. Learn more about the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on health inequality, as well as emerging research on these issues, by viewing the talk below.