Application
Applications for the 2025 Best Paper in Child Health Policy Award are closed.
The Susan B. Meister Award for Best Paper in Child Health Policy recognizes an outstanding scientific paper in child health policy in the past year. Awardees will be honored at the Annual Susan B. Meister Lecture in Child Health Policy with a plaque of acknowledgement including a $1,000 honorarium in support of their research.
Eligibility
Submissions must be made by a current University of Michigan graduate student or post-doctoral fellow who has published a significant paper in the past year. Doctoral dissertations as well as peer-reviewed publications or reports that are published, in press, or under review are eligible.
Source of Nominations
Self-nominations are encouraged and welcomed. We anticipate that many submissions will be self-nominated. Faculty mentors are encouraged to nominate their students or trainees.
Selection Process
Papers will be evaluated for the contribution of novel methods or expanding knowledge about a significant clinical or public health issue. The quality of research and significance of the policy implications of results will also be considered.
Nomination Timeline
Nominations should be submitted via the Google Form linked below. Note, nominations for 2025 are no longer being accepted.
- January 15, 2025: Call for nominations opens
- February 17, 2025: Submissions due
- End of February 2025: Review by Executive Representatives
- First week of March: Winner notified
- April 2, 2025: Award will be presented at the 17th Annual Susan B. Meister Lecture
Submission should include:
1. Summary of Paper: Provide a half page concise summary description of the submission including:
- Contribution of novel methods or expanding knowledge of a significant clinical or public health issue
- Quality of research
- Significance of policy implications of results
2. Paper or extended abstract (2-3 pages) in lieu of a dissertation:
- For dissertations that reflect a 3-paper option, please submit the paper that is most relevant for this award,
- For monograph-style dissertations, please submit an extended abstract with the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Please also provide a copy of the full dissertation for review,
- For stand-alone papers that are published, in press, or under review, please submit the complete paper.
3. Curriculum Vitae
Winners
2025 Recipient
Jessica Bezek, MS
Bezek JL, Tillem S, Suarez GL, Burt SA, Vazquez AY, Michael C, Sripada C, Kump KL, Hyde LW.
Functional Brain Network Organization and Multidomain Resilience to Neighborhood Disadvantage in Youth.
Am Psychol. 2024 Nov;79(8):1123-1138. doi: 10.1037/amp0001279. PMID: 39531711
2024 Recipient
Meredith Pedde, PhD, MPH, MPP
Pedde, M., Szpiro, A., Hirth, R. et al.
Randomized design evidence of the attendance benefits of the EPA School Bus Rebate Program.
Nat Sustain 6, 838–844 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01088-7
2023 Recipient
Caroline M. Hogan, MD
Hogan CM, Waselewski ME, Szachta P, Wolff C, Amaro X, Chang T.
Perceptions of COVID-19 Vaccine Incentives Among Adolescents and Young Adults.
JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jun 1;5(6):e2216628. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.16628. PMID: 35675072; PMCID: PMC9178431.
2022 Recipient
Josephine Granner, BSN, RN, PhD
Predictors of Parenting Stress for New Fathers Point Towards Trauma-Specific Perinatal Interventions - Dissertation Chapter
2021 Recipients
Drs. Nina Masters, MPH, PhD
Masters NB, Zelner J, Delamater PL, Hutton D, Kay M, Eisenberg MC, Boulton ML.
Evaluating Michigan's Administrative Rule Change on Nonmedical Vaccine Exemptions. Pediatrics. 2021 Sep;148(3):e2021049942. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-049942. Epub 2021 Aug 17. PMID: 34404742.
Sara Abelson, MPH, PhD
Abelson S, Lipson SK, Zhou S, Eisenberg D.
Muslim Young Adult Mental Health and the 2016 US Presidential Election. JAMA Pediatr. 2020;174(11):1112–1114. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3694
2019 Recipients
Rebecca Sokol, PhD
Sokol R, Austin A, Chandler C, Byrum E, Bousquette J, Lancaster C, Doss G, Dotson, A, Urbaeva V, Singichetti B, Brevard K, Wright S, Lanier P, and Shanahan M (2019).
Screening children for social determinants of health: A systematic review. Pediatrics. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2019-1622
Elyse Thulin, PhD
Thulin EJ, McLean KE, Sevalie S, Akinsulure-Smith AM, Betancourt TS. (2020).
Mental health problems among children in Sierra Leone: assessing cultural concepts of distress. Transcultural Psychiatry. 1363461520916695.