THE CENTER

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

George Washington Carver

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Since Meharry Medical College's inception, the mission has been to level health inequities and improve the health and health care programs of minority and underserved communities. In 2019, Meharry Medical College established The Center for the Study of Social Determinants of Health to further Meharry's mission of serving the underserved.  Our vision is to empower communities through research and outreach programs focused on health, wellness, and science. 

DR. BRYAN HECKMAN

The Center’s Founding Director, Dr. Bryan Heckman, is an Associate Professor at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Heckman’s research program examines consequences associated with social determinants of health from multiple levels of analysis, thereby providing evidence to inform integrative models of behavior, treatment development, and policy. 

Over his astute career, his primary research focus has been understanding and mitigating addictive behaviors, specializing in tobacco smoking. Dr. Heckman has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for close to two decades and has over
60+ peer-reviewed publications.

Given the multi-determined nature of health behaviors, Dr. Heckman believes significant conceptual and applied advances will occur through transdisciplinary paradigms and therefore applies a wide range of techniques.