The Baylor ISR Program on Religion and Population Health (PRPH) has a significant interest in contributing to the national conversation on the role of faith and faith-based initiatives in health care and health policy.  This is an important and timely issue at the present, as politicians and policymakers engage in debate over the future course of health care reform in the U.S.  Several ISR faculty have played a central role in faith-based research, policymaking, and programming at the highest level of the federal government, including Jay Hein, Dr. Amy L. Sherman, and Dr. Byron R. Johnson.  The Director of PRPH, Dr. Jeff Levin, anticipates that ISR will play a lead role in formulating a national agenda for the faith-based sector in public health policy.

Currently, PRPH is developing partnerships with the Heritage Foundation, the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, and several other beltway institutions in the think-tank sector.  Already underway are applied research and scholarly writing projects on leveraging faith-based resources for national and global health policy and plans for establishing an ongoing working group to develop policy initiatives, legislation, academic conferences, and media events.

For more information on the Heritage Foundation, visit http://www.heritage.org/.

For more information on the Sagamore Institute, visit http://www.sagamoreinstitute.org/.