Newly released: Recommendations from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America. Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities calls for action on early childhood, healthy communities, and bridging health and health care. Read the report and explore the charts, infographics, and videos at RWJF.org

Leadership Blog

  • A Closing Word from Risa Lavizzo-Mourey on the Commission to Build a Healthier America (0 Comment)
    by Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    December 17, 2009

    After a year and a half, two major reports and national events, three regional field hearings, nine issue briefs, two chart books, and more than 50 meetings with leaders from government and the private sector, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America has come to a close. Read More

  • Commissioner Podcast Series (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    December 17, 2009

    Hear what the Commissioners have to say about the journey of the Commission to Build a Healthier America, the recommendations that they developed and the future of health in America in a final Podcast Series on the Leadership Blog. Read More

  • Guest Post: Toward the Healthy City (6 Comments)
    by Jason Corburn, Associate Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley
    November 18, 2009

    What makes a city healthy and how would we know when a city is healthy? This question has challenged planners, public health officials and urban residents from Mesopotamia to modern American cities. Read More

  • Live from APHA: Working Together to Make Americans Healthier (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    November 10, 2009

    From RWJF’s liveblog of the 2009 American Public Health Association (APHA) conference in Philadelphia comes a new post on Commission and its recommendations for improving America’s health. Read More

  • Guest Post: “What does ‘good health’ mean to girls?” (1 Comment)
    by Laurie A. Westley, Senior Vice President, Girl Scouts of the USA
    November 5, 2009

    America’s health starts with healthy children, but what does “good health” mean to kids? At Girls Scouts of the USA, we’re working to bring an important perspective to the table: we know what works for girls. Read More

  • From Congress to the Cafeteria: Healthy Food is a Priority (1 Comment)
    by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
    November 3, 2009

    The Commission recognized the importance of nutritious food for improving the health of Americans when it released its recommendations in April. It saw communities without any access to grocery stores and fresh produce, school meals for children containing chicken nuggets, pizza and fries, and a country disconnected from the food system it relies on for its nutritional wellbeing. But recently, the tide has begun to turn. Read More

  • Poverty’s High Cost to Health (1 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    October 19, 2009

    In the September 2009 Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity webcast, RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., discusses social and economic factors that influence health, including access to high quality health care, healthy neighborhoods and grocery stores. Read More

  • Commission Launches Extensive New Database of Prevention and Wellness Resources (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    October 8, 2009

    The Commission launched a new online resource guide today at resources.commissiononhealth.org that features key organizations, reports and experts in nutrition, physical activity, early childhood, tobacco and healthy communities. Read More

  • Guest Post: School's Out for...Never? (Updated: Watch Vialet on ABC Now) (0 Comment)
    by Jill Vialet, Founder and President, Playworks
    September 29, 2009

    As President Obama calls for lengthening the school day and shortening summer vacation to improve education for U.S. children, Jill Vialet, founder and president of Playworks, explains that "there's a way to recapture an entire week for each classroom every year that already exists." The answer? "It's recess," she says. "And it can pay hefty dividends." Read More

  • Addressing Your Questions from the Accessing Healthy Foods Webinar (1 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    September 10, 2009

    Thanks to all who joined the August 10 webinar focusing on promoting health by improving access to healthy foods. As with the previous two webinars, we've collected all the questions and answered them here on the Leadership Blog. Read More

  • Time For Constructive, Research-Based Dialogue About Health Reform (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    September 3, 2009

    RWJF’s James Marks follows up his excellent piece about the CBO’s scoring rules on The Huffington Post, “What if Benjamin Franklin Ran the Congressional Budget Office?” with a call for less shouting and more constructive, research-based dialogue with the medical and health communities. Dr. Marks highlights the progress that has been made over the last month toward calling for a reevaluation of the CBO 10-year scoring horizon, which discounts investments in prevention. Read More

  • Guest Post: Separating Fact from Fiction and Health from Health Care (0 Comment)
    by Jim Marks, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    August 31, 2009

    In an editorial on Wednesday, The New York Times debunks the often-cited claim that America has the best health care system in the world. For the politicians who routinely use this as a plank in their efforts to stifle reform, the Urban Institute study is an objective rebuke. The U.S. health care system is not the best – far from it. And Americans, with a life expectancy that still trails many other countries, are not the healthiest people in the world. Read More

  • Addressing Your Questions from the Healthy Communities Webinar (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    August 26, 2009

    As with the first webinar, the Commission's August 4 webinar, "Creating Healthy Communities," generated more questions from participants than we could answer during the Q&A. The questions are compiled and answered by Commission staff in the post below. Read More

  • Addressing Your Questions from the Early Childhood Webinar (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    August 18, 2009

    The Commission's July 24 webinar, "A Focus on Starting Early," generated many questions from participants that did not fit into the allotted time for Q&A. We have compiled these questions and answered them below, providing links and additional resources wherever possible. Read More

  • Guest Response: Looking Beyond the CBO's 10-Year Window for a Return on Health Investments (0 Comment)
    by Paula Braveman, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
    August 5, 2009

    Dr. Marks’ comments strike a personally resonant chord. As a family physician, all my medical training and years in practice centered on a view of patients in the context not only of their families and communities but of their own life courses. “The child is father to the man.” We become who we are as adults and as we age, based to an important extent on who we were as children. Read More

  • Guest Post: What If Benjamin Franklin Ran the Congressional Budget Office? (0 Comment)
    by Jim Marks, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    August 5, 2009

    Benjamin Franklin once famously remarked, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Unfortunately, what this means is often, according to the CBO, an ounce of prevention isn't worth anything at all. Read More

  • Early Childhood Webinar Recording and Slides Now Available (0 Comment)
    by Staff, Commission to Build a Healthier America
    July 27, 2009

    The audio recording and accompanying slides from Friday's webinar, "A Focus on Starting Early," are now available. Listen now and sign up to be notified about the next two webinars on the Commission's recommendations. Read More

  • Real Progress, 30 Years in the Making (0 Comment)
    by Angela Glover Blackwell, Commissioner
    July 27, 2009

    I attended an event yesterday that was more than 30 years in the making. As I looked around the White House Office of Urban Affairs listening tour meeting at a packed Philadelphia warehouse space and saw low-income residents and local leaders mingling with some of our nation’s most powerful people (including two cabinet secretaries!), I thought back on where the fight for equitable access to healthy food started for me. Read More

  • Guest Post: Air Pollutants During Pregnancy Limit Children's Ability to Grow up Healthy (0 Comment)
    by Paula Braveman, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
    July 24, 2009

    A ground-breaking – and disturbing – new study has added to the already massive accumulation of evidence that where we live is one of the most important influences on our health as well as our life chances overall. The study, just published in the August issue of Pediatrics, found that the IQs of young children were significantly lowered by the exposure of their mothers to urban air pollutants during pregnancy. Read More

  • Guest Post: HUD Calls for Non-Smoking Policies in Public Housing Units (0 Comment)
    by Tracy Orleans, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    July 22, 2009

    In a notice released on Friday, HUD strongly encouraged Public Housing Authorities to prohibit smoking in all public housing to improve the health of residents and reduce smoking-related fires. The measure follows the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that President Obama signed at the end of June. Read More

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