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Crown Family School Research Centers

Center for Health Administration Studies

The Crown Family School's Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) has been a leader for over 75 years in research and education in health policy and services. CHAS engages an interdisciplinary and international group of health policy and services researchers on topics of health policy innovation and reform, health and social service integration, health access, cost and quality, behavioral health, global health, and preventive intervention. CHAS is well-known for expertise in health policy and service effectiveness for the disadvantaged.

An intentionally interdisciplinary center located in a graduate school of social work is a unique institutional form that both exploits and enriches the values and orientation of the University of Chicago. CHAS has explored new questions, identified knowledge gaps, sought to enhance the translation of research-to-practice, and identified opportunities for collaborations within and outside the University. Programs support faculty research, research dissemination and translation, student learning, and engage researchers, scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners.

The Center also supports an innovative health policy and research training program for graduate professional students at the University of Chicago, the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy (GPHAP). GPHAP is unique among health administration programs in the United States. GPHAP allows students to earn either a Certificate in Health Administration and Policy or a Certificate in Health Administration and Policy with a Concentration in Global Health, while earning a degree in one of the participating graduate schools on campus: the Booth School of Business, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Law School, the Pritzker School of Medicine, and the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

The Center is housed at the University of Chicago Crown Family School. CHAS moved to the University of Chicago in 1962, and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

The Crown Family School partners with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, an independent entity. Chapin Hall has, since its inception in 1985 as a research and policy center, focused on a mission of improving the well-being of children and youth, families, and their communities. This mission is achieved through policy research—by developing and testing new ideas, generating and analyzing information, and examining policies, programs, and practices across a wide range of service systems and organizations. Chapin Hall's researchers meet regularly with policy-makers, agency directors, philanthropic organizations, and community groups to assure that important findings are placed directly in the hands of those who can best use them.

A number of faculty members from the Crown Family School are partners with Chapin Hall and direct research under its auspices. Crown Family School doctoral and master’s-level students form an integral part of many Chapin Hall research teams and are active participants in seminars and discussions. Please refer to the Chapin Hall website for more information about the organization’s research, publications, and conferences.

Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention (CCYVP)

Since 2005, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers at the CCYVP have been committed to studying and preventing violence in Chicago communities. There is no simple or single answer to eliminating youth violence. The Center approaches the multifaceted problem of youth violence by providing programs targeted at children and families at different developmental ages and with youth at varying levels of associated risk and involvement. Center efforts are coordinated with the social systems that have the most direct influence on youth throughout development – families, schools, community agencies, and justice. Within each of the three core aims, the CCYVP is committed to training the next generation of youth violence prevention scholars, coordinating training and education activities across sites and academic disciplines. Professor and Dean of the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice Deborah Gorman-Smith is the Principal Investigator and director of the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention.

The primary aims of CCYVP are: 

  1. To understand the nature and causes of youth violence, bringing together a coalition of community, policy and academic partners. 
  2. To design and test prevention interventions, evaluating the process and impact of these interventions in high-risk, urban communities, and identifying the unique challenges and adaptations necessary for implementation in urban neighborhoods. 
  3. To partner with the community, providing training and technical assistance to build capacity for schools and community agencies to select, implement and evaluate evidence-based interventions. CCYVP also evaluates and informs current policy strategies aimed at reducing youth and other forms of violence, evaluates the most promising interventions within the community, and uses these data to inform policy and practice. 

Health Lab

The UChicago Health Lab leverages rigorous research methods such as randomized controlled trials, large datasets, and partnerships with government agencies and nonprofits to test novel health care delivery models and improve public health outcomes for underserved populations in Chicago and beyond. Health Lab staff partner with civic and community leaders to generate evidence on what works to improve health outcomes for vulnerable individuals who struggle to navigate the healthcare system.

Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development

In February 2021, the University announced a $25 million gift from the Kiphart Family Foundation that would establish the Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development. The Kiphart Center, led in partnership with the Biological Sciences Division, will bring together expertise from around the University in support of collaborative efforts with partner communities to alleviate disease, improve infrastructure, and promote community health and well-being. It will build upon the University’s global health initiatives, shape the overarching policies and structural inequities that impact health, and help achieve breakthroughs and improvements in the well-being of children, families, and communities around the globe.   

Interdisciplinary Scholar Networks

The Crown Family School launched the Interdisciplinary Scholar Network initiative to bring together scholars across disciplinary and professional lines and to generate innovative and more comprehensive knowledge aimed at addressing some of society’s most intractable social problems. Two networks have been established:

  • The Employment Instability, Family Well-being and Social Policy Network (EINet): This research network enhances the capacity of the field to study employment instability at the lower end of the labor market and develops and evaluates interventions aimed at reducing employment instability and its effects on children and families.
  • The STI and HIV Intervention Network (SHINE): This network conducts research on the biological, behavioral, and structural factors that heighten vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections and HIV among vulnerable populations in the United States. SHINE develops and evaluates interventions to alleviate existing STI/HIV disparities.

Information and Application

For further information and application materials, contact the Office of Admissions, the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, 969 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637; telephone: (773) 702-1250 or by visiting the Crown Family School website at https://crownschool.uchicago.edu/.