[Note: A high resolution photo of Frisvold is available on Vanderbilt’s News Network at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Vanderbilt University doctoral student whose research has examined the relationship between Head Start and its long-term impact on participants’ health has been named a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research.
David Frisvold, who will receive his doctorate in economics in May, will spend the next two years at the University of Michigan learning more about the health policy-making process while continuing to conduct relevant research analysis under the guidance of distinguished faculty mentors.
“This prestigious fellowship brings together talented scholars in the social sciences who do not have formal medical or public health training and creates a true interdisciplinary program that focuses on health policy,” said Professor of Economics James Foster, who served as Frisvold’s dissertation adviser. Foster, who is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Studies, is pleased that this marks the second year in a row that a graduate student from Vanderbilt’s Economics Department has been selected for this prestigious program. Martha Bailey began the same two-year fellowship in the fall of 2005.
The fellowship allows the scholars to devote all of their focus on research, since they are free of teaching, consulting and administrative responsibilities during their time in the program.
“Naturally, I was pleased to hear that another of our graduate students had been singled out for such a distinctive fellowship,” said Dennis Hall, associate provost for research and graduate education. “This reflects well both on David Frisvold for his exemplary academic performance and on the faculty in our Economics Department. My congratulations to both.”
Frisvold, a research assistant in the Center for Health Policy at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, is one of 12 outstanding health policy scholars from across the nation chosen for this honor.
Joining him at Michigan for the fellowship will be Stanford University political scientist Jonathan Wand, who received his doctorate from Cornell University; Indiana University sociologist Quincy Stewart, who has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania; and Elizabeth Bruch, who is expected to receive her doctorate this spring at the University of California – Los Angeles.
“The main focus of my research at Vanderbilt has been the impact of participating in Head Start, an early childhood development program for disadvantaged children, on childhood obesity and adult smoking behavior,” Frisvold said. “During this upcoming fellowship, my work will expand and look more broadly at how education influences health outcomes. For example, what are the pathways through which education improves health and health behaviors?”
Frisvold hopes that his research about Head Start can have a future impact in the policy arena. “There is constant debate on how Head Start should be structured,” he said. “I hope that my research demonstrates that Head Start can have an influence on a wider array of developmental outcomes than previous research has shown.”
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Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu