Public Health Institute

11/18/2025

CIRH Academy is an educational initiative of PHI’s Center for Immigrant and Refugee Health (CIRH), designed to provide culturally tailored trainings on immigrant and refugee topics to enhance the health and wellness outcomes for immigrant and refugee communities.

In collaboration with Project ANAR, PHI's CIRH recently hosted a training to equip community members, service providers, advocates and allies with the tools to effectively lead Know Your Rights workshops. Speakers shared with participants practical strategies for facilitating these workshops and strengthening advocacy within their own communities.

Watch the recording:

CIRH Academy is an educational initiative of PHI's Center for Immigrant and Refugee Health (CIRH), designed to provide culturally tailored trainings on immigrant and refugee topics to enhance the health and wellness outcomes for immigrant and refugee communities.

11/18/2025

Every dollar of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) supports whole communities by allowing millions of people to put healthy, nutritious meals on the table, keeping kids fed and supporting grocery and local food stores. This blog from PHI’s Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) provides effective messaging for demonstrating the ripple effects of the SNAP program and can help public health communicators tell a more complete story about SNAP at any time, not just amid urgent crises:

Every dollar of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) supports whole communities by allowing millions of people to put healthy, nutritious meals on the table,…

11/18/2025

Flipping the Table, a podcast from PHI's Roots of Change hosted by PHI's Michael Dimock, presents dynamic and enlightening conversations with people who are flipping the table to create new ways to feed the world. In their latest episode, titled "We're All Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf," author & wild-farm advocate Dan Imhoff explores the challenge of embracing coexistence with predators when raising livestock in conversation with Montana ranchers Becky W**d & Malou Anderson Ramirez. Listen:

PHI's Michael Dimock hosts dynamic and enlightening conversations with people who are flipping the table to create new ways to feed the world. Honest conversations…

11/18/2025

Where a person lives—their zip code—often has a greater impact on health outcomes than their genetic code. For health payers, this reality underscores the importance of looking beyond clinical care to the broader social, economic and environmental factors that influence health and well-being. A new factsheet from PHI’s Build Healthy Places Network highlights how health payers and community developers, by aligning resources and priorities, can drive investment in the vital conditions that shape health and well-being. These collaborations not only address immediate health and social needs but also generate long-term community infrastructure that benefits families for generations.

Read more:

This factsheet from PHI's Build Healthy Places Network highlights how partnerships between health payers and community developers can drive investment in the vital conditions that…

11/12/2025

New Jobs | Study: Greater Alcohol Use Recovery From Attending Mutual-Help Groups In Person | Elevating Black Women's Behavioral Health and Support Needs | Register: 2025 Rural ACEs Summit | Mobilizing Community Investment for Health Payers—all that and more in our latest updates:

New Study: Greater Recovery Benefits for Alcohol Use Disorder From Attending Mutual-Help Groups In Person Vs. Online New research from PHI’s Alcohol Research Group (ARG) finds that people with alcohol use disorders experience significantly better recovery outcomes when attending mutual-help group ...

11/07/2025

PHI's Pacific ADA Center is currently accepting presentation proposals for their 2026 Virtual Conference, Beyond Compliance: Access, Equity and the ADA. This call for speakers aims to broaden perspectives and highlight innovative work related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Pacific ADA Center encourages proposals from speakers of varied backgrounds, experiences, and identities, including individuals with disabilities and those from underrepresented communities, and is seeking engaging and informative sessions that:

- Are focused on the ADA and relevant to people with disabilities, service providers, employers, policymakers, and other stakeholders.
- Reflect current trends, best practices, and practical applications of the ADA.
- Are led by speakers who are comfortable presenting and engaging with a diverse audience in a virtual setting.
- Come from individuals affiliated with a professional organization, non-profit, business, state or local government agency, or academic institution.

Find more information, including examples of topic areas and how to apply by the deadline next Friday, November 14:

11/06/2025

PHI staff were honored to attend a screening and panel discussion last weekend featuring “Out of Plain Sight," a documentary that explores the short- and long-term impacts of DDT—a toxic chemical commonly used as a pesticide beginning in the 1940s and later banned in the U.S. due to its negative health and environmental impacts. PHI's Dr. Barbara Cohn, Director and Senior Research Scientist at PHI’s Child Health & Development Studies (CHDS), is featured in the documentary and attended the screening held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.

PHI’s CHDS investigates how health and disease are passed on between generations through its landmark study featuring cohorts spanning over 60 years, including nearly four familial generations. These intergenerational cohorts provide a unique opportunity to investigate the relationships between biological, behavioral, social, genetic and environmental factors in early family life to health outcomes in adulthood and over generations, making it possible for researchers to understand social determinants of health in ways not available before. In 2021, CHDS published the first findings to show that exposure to DDT can lead to the intergenerational transmission of health risks for up to three human generations.

In the film, Dr. Cohn underscores the alarming reality that chemicals like DDT will stay in our environment for the long term, posing health threats to humans and entire ecosystems for generations. "This is another interpretation of what 'forever chemical' means, right?" said Barbara. "When people use that term, they often think that forever means that it just sits in the environment and it never goes away. Well, the impact may be forever too."

Read more about Out of Plain Sight: https://www.phi.org/press/phis-dr-cohn-featured-in-out-of-plain-sight-documentary-on-ddt-and-health/

Learn more about PHI's CHDS: https://www.phi.org/our-work/programs/child-health-and-development-studies/

11/04/2025

People with alcohol use disorders experience significantly better recovery outcomes when attending mutual-help group meetings in person rather than online only, according to a new study from PHI's Alcohol Research Group (Public Health Institute) (ARG). The study, published last month in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, examined people attending 12-step groups (like AA), SMART Recovery, LifeRing Secular Recovery, and Women for Sobriety, concluding that those seeking peer support for an alcohol use disorder should attend at least some in-person meetings to achieve the maximum benefits for alcohol use and problems.

"The benefits of mutual-help group participation seem to come largely from social engagement with other attendees. By this I mean establishing a regular meeting where you know others, volunteering for the group, leading meetings, and ultimately making friends who support your recovery," said PHI's Sarah Zemore, PhD, senior scientist at ARG and lead study author. "So, the recommended path is to attend at least some in-person meetings where you can genuinely connect with others."

Read more:

In Person or Online? Study Reveals Greater Benefits for In-person Mutual-help Group Attendance in Alcohol Use Disorder Recovery New research from PHI's Alcohol Research Group finds that people with alcohol use disorders experience significantly better recovery outcomes when attending mutual health g...

11/04/2025

Sipping Tea is a new podcast from See Her Bloom, a program of PHI’s Center for Collaborative Planning, that explores ways to improve Black women’s access to opioid use prevention and treatment resources for themselves, their families and communities.

Their second episode features a conversation with Stephanie Yancey, Co-Founder of Yancey Recovery Services, who shares about her work as a recovery counselor for youth and adults experiencing substance use and mental health crises. Stephanie breaks down what it means to provide trauma-informed and culturally appropriate care amid stigma, lack of trust, and historical injustices in handling substance use disorders. Listen to the full episode:

This podcast series from See Her Bloom, a program of PHI's Center for Collaborative Planning, explores ways to improve Black women’s access to opioid use…

10/31/2025

Every day, our teams at the Public Health Institute work with and in communities across this country—from rural towns to urban centers, in schools, health institutions, and neighborhood organizations. We provide nutrition education, support community-led food initiatives, and witness firsthand how federal food assistance programs sustain families. We urge federal policymakers to swiftly restore full SNAP funding. The families and communities we serve cannot afford further delay. Read PHI's full statement:

Statement from the Public Health Institute on SNAP Funding“Every day, our teams at the Public Health Institute work with and in communities across this country—from…

10/31/2025

A documentary featuring PHI’s Dr. Barbara Cohn, director of PHI’s Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), will be screening at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Saturday, November 1. Out of Plain Sight follows LA Times environmental journalist and Pulitzer Prize-finalist, Roseanna Xia, as she searches to determine the health and environmental impacts of DDT—a toxic chemical commonly used as a pesticide beginning in the 1940s and later banned in the U.S. in 1972 due to rising evidence of its health threats to wildlife and humans. In 2020, Xia broke the story that as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean decades ago, just off the coast of Los Angeles.

Learn more about the documentary and purchase tickets for the screening:

Dr. Barbara Cohn, Director and Senior Research Scientist at PHI's Child Health and Development Studies is featured in Out of Plain Sight, a new documentary…

10/31/2025

Attending the American Public Health Association's Annual Meeting and Expo next week in Washington D.C.? PHI and its programs are returning to share their research, expertise and new ideas at hashtag . Join PHI's Carmen Nevarez, co-founder of Dialogue4Health and senior advisor at the PHI Center for Health Leadership & Impact, as she moderates, "Champion Conversations III: Women Leaders Making the Public’s Health a National Priority." The panel will feature:
● Nadine Burke Harris - Founder of ACE Action Network,
● Congresswoman Lauren Underwood - Illinois’ 14th Congressional District
● Jodee Winterhof - Senior Vice President, Federal State and Affairs, Human Rights Campaign

Learn more and explore the full PHI Digital Guide to APHA 2025:

PHI and its programs are returning to share their research, expertise, and new ideas at APHA 2025, which is being held in-person in Washington, D.C.…