The UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity focuses on reducing disparities in incidence, prevalence, mortality and burden of disease experienced by disadvantaged and underserved populations. The Center concentrates on “keeping the public healthy” by developing, implementing, evaluating and disseminating effective and efficient strategies to address inequities. 

The vision of our Center is to achieve health equity as an essential characteristic of a society that values the health of all its members. This vision is based in a belief that all individuals should have the opportunity to attain the highest level of health and access to health care regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, education, economic status, sexual identity or disability status.

Our research is trans-disciplinary, takes a life course perspective and is rooted in a deep understanding of the social determinants of health.  Our focus is on leveraging community assets to develop, test and implement practical, scalable, and sustainable interventions executed in close collaboration with partners from a broad range of societal sectors including health care, education, government, business, non-profits and civil society.

Officially launched in 2004, the Center fosters community-academic partnerships in research, trains the next generation of health equity scientists, and assists community partners in implementing evidence-based programs to address disparities. Our research portfolio and programs are national and global in scope, with a major concentration in Los Angeles and surrounding counties.