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Center on Social Dynamics and Policy

Collaborations and affiliations

The Center on Social Dynamics and Policy (CSDP) engages with nationally and internationally recognized experts to produce high-quality research and positively impact policy. A list of these important external relationships can be found below.

Recent collaborators

Entities with which CSDP has partnered on recent research projects.

  1. Implementation Science Center for Cancer Control: Together with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, CSDP is part of a multidisciplinary team identifying leverage points to improve the implementation of effective and sustainable cancer control in public health programs across the U.S.
  2. Advancing Science & Practice in the Retail Environment (ASPiRE) Center: CSDP contributes modeling efforts to the NIH-funded ASPiRE Center on research into effective tobacco retail control policies.
  3. Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO): The National Institute of Health’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) is a program that examines the relationship between prenatal and early childhood environment and health outcomes using data from several dozen completed and ongoing cohort studies conducted across the United States. CSDP is affiliated with Project Viva, a longitudinal cohort research study led by Harvard University. In addition, CSDP Assistant Research Director Matt Kasman is a member of the ECHO publication committee.
  4. Catalyzing Communities: Using insights gleaned from the COMPACT project that CSDP participated in, the ongoing Catalyzing Communities initiative works with community stakeholders to meaningfully and sustainably address challenges and improve childhood health.
  5. United States Institute for Peace (USIP): Inspired by the 2019 Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act, USIP initiated a Learning Agenda As part of this effort, CSDP authored a report on whether and how the methodologies that we employ can be used to effectively reduce violent conflict around the world.

Recent policy advising roles and scientific network affiliations

  1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): CSDP Director Ross Hammond is an advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. He is also an advisor for the FDA/NIH Center of Tobacco Regulatory Science.
  2. U.S. Department of Agriculture: Based on recommendations featured in several consensus reports compiled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the USDA has taken steps to incorporate systems science into the process through which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is produced, used, and evaluated. Dr. Hammond convened a 2023 working group to make recommendations on how best to do so, which Dr. Kasman participated in; the work sessions resulted in a report on how systems science approaches can improve the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): CSDP Director Ross Hammond was an appointed member of the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives.
  4. Lancet Commission: Dr. Hammond was a commissioner and Dr. Kasman was a fellow on a commission that was convened by the Lancet medical journal. The Commission’s goal is to study the systems that drive the worldwide obesity epidemic and, based on these findings, to initiate action to reduce obesity levels and related inequalities. The Commission also aims to establish mechanisms for regular, independent reporting on progress towards national and global obesity targets, implementation of recommended policies and actions, and specific systems analyses of obesity drivers and solutions.
  5. National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR): CSDP participates in the NCCOR research network, a joint project of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture to address the problem of childhood obesity in America. CSDP Director Hammond has served on the steering committee of the network’s Envision project computational modeling group.
  6. Systems Science for Social Impact Summer Institute: CSDP Director Ross Hammond and Assistant Research Director Matt Kasman are involved with the organization, administration, and teaching of Systems Science for Social Impact Summer Institute, a summer course on systems science and agent-based modeling at Washington University in St. Louis.
  7. NIH Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) Network: CSDP Director Hammond served as a member of the MIDAS Network, applying agent-based modeling to inform vaccination strategies against a weaponized smallpox outbreak. His research helped identify novel containment strategies that are the basis for current outbreak policies.
  8. Network on Inequality, Complexity, and Health (NICH): CSDP Director Hammond is a member of the multidisciplinary National Institutes of Health NICH network. The network’s goal has been to apply state-of-the-art conceptual and computational models to the understanding of the origins of health disparities and to the design of policy interventions to reduce such disparities. Members of this network contributed to a recent book on the current state of health disparities research. CSDP Director Ross Hammond and Assistant Research Director Matt Kasman highlighted the ways in which systems science perspectives and methodologies can be used to address persistent inequities and advance social justice.