Research Centers

The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University will be the nation's first autism research center focused on public health science.  The institute is housed in Drexel’s School of Public Health and directed by Craig Newschaffer, Professor and Chair of the Department and Epidemiology and Biostatistics.  It builds on the faculty, resources and  research on autism spectrum disorders ongoing at the Drexel University School of Public Health.

The Center for Hunger-Free Communities, founded in 2004 and formerly known as the Philadelphia GROW Project, offers the same multi-faceted research and action that has characterized the work on hunger and poverty at Drexel with the goal of developing innovative, proven solutions to the challenges of hunger and economic insecurity.

The Center for Health Equality (CHE) is a collaboration between the Drexel University School of Public Health and the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Its mission is to partner with community and government to improve the health and well-being of communities through the elimination of health disparities. The center provides an innovative and exciting program of research and evaluation, networking and collaboration, education and practice built around a commitment to social justice and human rights.

The mission of the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication (CPHRC) is to enhance community resilience and the ability of health professionals, emergency managers, and public safety officials to meet the needs of all communities in times of disaster and public health emergency.  In keeping with the School’s commitment to health and human rights, the CPHRC has an applied focus on serving marginalized, vulnerable, and hard-to-reach populations.

The Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice was founded in the belief that a human society can evolve to be nonviolent and socially just. By creating sanctuary in our society, the personal, social, economic and multigenerational wounds caused by sustained exposure to violence can be healed for the public health and welfare. The goal of the center is to transform current policies, systems and practice toward a more trauma-informed model.

The mission of the National Resource Center on Advancing Emergency Preparedness is to serve as a central clearinghouse of resources and an information exchange portal to facilitate communication, networking and collaboration to improve preparedness, build resilience and eliminate disparities for culturally diverse communities across all phases of an emergency.

The Center for Public Health Practice is the overarching entity for scholarship in public health practice. The Center serves to bring together the resources of the school with public health practitioners and to engage public health organizations and academia in partnership to improve the health of our communities.  The CPHP is partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to create the Pennsylvania Public Health Training Center.

The Firefighter Injury Research & Safety Trends (FIRST) project is the initial step towards developing a comprehensive national system for capturing firefighter injuries. If the Fire Service and safety researchers had comprehensive, consistent, and accurate information about who is being injured, how they are being injured,  and what type of injury they experienced, then these injuries can be prevented.

EARLI is a network of research sites that will enroll and follow 1,200 mothers of children with autism at the start of another pregnancy and document the newborn child’s development through three years of age. The EARLI Study will examine possible environmental risk factors for autism and study whether there is any interplay between environmental factors and genetic susceptibility.

The Program for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health aims to address the public health needs of LGBT populations through research and evaluation, education and training, partnering with health and social service providers, and public health policy and advocacy.