Three-year-old boy looks through a microscope with his mother beside him.

University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute accelerates capacity to create equitable conditions for everyone to be healthy by advancing knowledge, practice, policy, and systems change across sectors.

Since 2005, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute has collaborated with partners at the local, state, and national level to help communities identify, evaluate, track, and shape the many factors that influence people’s health and well-being.

We provide evidence-informed strategies, actionable data, compelling narratives and stories, and high-quality training to equip people with the best possible tools and resources to build equitable systems, structures, and policies.

We believe that only by working together toward a world in which we value one another and honor our connectedness will we achieve the healthiest possible conditions for all of us.

Explore our programs

County Health Rankings and Roadmaps

The CHR&R program is known for effectively translating and communicating complex data and evidence-informed policy into accessible models, reports, and products that deepen the understanding of what makes communities healthy and inspires and supports improvement efforts.

 

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Evaluation & Engaged Research

Our team of professional evaluators and action researchers collaborate with partners from many sectors and use evaluation and community-engaged research as tools to plan and build more equitable systems, programs, policies, and community conditions where everyone has an opportunity to thrive.

Learn more about their collaborative efforts, projects, and the evaluation services they offer.

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Workforce Development Pathways

The Workforce Development Pathways team works to advance public health system workforce policy and practice through translational research and practice, partnering with people with firsthand experience, committed service, and training and technical assistance. The team aims to change practice, focus priorities, and shift power to support shared action on root causes of health and equity.

 

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Aerial photograph of Picnic Point, a green forested peninsula in a large lake

Land Acknowledgement

The UW Population Health Institute occupies Ho-Chunk Land, a place their nation has called Teejop (Day-JOPE) since time immemorial. In 1832, the Ho-Chunk were forced to surrender this territory. Decades of ethnic cleansing followed when both the federal and state government repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to forcibly remove the Ho-Chunk people from Wisconsin.

This history of colonization shapes our commitment to building partnerships that prioritize respect and meaningful engagement. The staff of the institute respects the inherent sovereignty of the Ho-Chunk Nation, along with the 11 other First Nations of Wisconsin. We carry this land acknowledgement into our actions by considering the many legacies of violence, erasure, displacement, migration, and settlement as a lens in our work.