Research Interests: Structural Determinants of Health; Social Policy; Labor Policy; State Policy Contexts; Population Health; Health Inequities; Low Wage Workers; Social Demography.
Awards: 2022-2023 Warren G. Magnuson Scholar; 2021-2022 TL1 Interdisciplinary Translational Research Fellow; 2020 CSWE-SSWR-GADE Social Work Doctoral Student Policy Forum Award; 2020 Population Health Applied Research Fellow
Affiliations: Population Association of America (PAA), Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS), Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE), West Coast Poverty Center, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS)
My research focuses on state policy contexts and health inequities among economically disadvantaged groups. Utilizing a health equity lens, my dissertation research examines whether variations in U.S. state preemption of four labor laws is associated with adverse mental health outcomes and health care access for U.S. workers, and whether these outcomes are patterned by gender, race, ethnicity, and insurance. In addition, using biomarkers of cardiovascular (CV) health, I consider whether irregular work schedules, a potential outcome of fair scheduling preemption laws, are getting “under the skin” of workers in young adulthood. Drawing on a “health in all policies” agenda, my work aims to inform targeted policy making and eliminate population health disparities.
Email: jlapham1@uw.edu