Reflecting Back to Move Forward

We are now a team of 34 faculty, staff, and employed students with 18 ongoing research projects to improve health equity across the state of Texas. Our Health Equity Collective systems coalition is over 325 organizations strong, strengthening our regional policy, systems, and environment for non-medical drivers of health. We have two community engagement studios in gun violence prevention, and Food Is Medicine. Our faculty, fellows, students, and staff are participating, presenting, and engaging in local, national, and international conversations around social and structural drivers of health. Most of all, I am proud to say that we have stayed true to our shared values of human-centered design, innovation through collaboration, and building trust through transparency and communication.

We hope you will enjoy this newsletter, our impact report for 2023- 2024. We anticipate this growth will continue in 2025 with an ongoing, active faculty search for the Center. Center faculty, research scientists, and post-doctoral research fellows are fostering scientific innovation through partnership and collaboration across important areas of stigma, water security, culinary medicine, physical activity, and housing.



We are further accelerating our efforts to support evidence-based policy in Food Is Medicine so healthy food can be a covered medical benefit under our insurance plans. We are doing this through capacity building and research with our health system and community organization partners.

We also know that to grow fast, we must go slow. Reflecting on the learnings from this year, our path forward will be thoughtful and aligned with the expectations of our internal and external partners, building capacity within our Center to support this work and creating space for learning in local and national conversations.

Finally, regardless of shifting winds, we remain steadfast in our commitment to you and our vision of building healthy people across flourishing communities.

With gratitude,



Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD

Director, Center for Health Equity



Food is medicine (FIM) can be defined as a set of interventions that include the provision of healthy food as a means to prevent, manage, or treat specific clinical conditions integrated with the healthcare system. Largely, these include Medically Tailored Meals, Medically Tailored Groceries, and Produce Prescription programs. Access to healthy food is critical for the management of chronic medical conditions, and the opportunity nationally is to have healthy food be a covered medical benefit under our insurance plans. Many states, using approaches such as 1115 waiver funds or in lieu of services, are paying for these programs through Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services funds. However, consistent and widespread coverage will require the establishment of an evidence base to inform this work.

The Center for Health Equity has a robust portfolio of Food Is Medicine research and policy activities to inform the evidence base across diverse populations in Texas. In partnership with health systems (e.g., Harris Health, UT Physicians, Legacy Community Health), managed care organizations (e.g., Community Health Choice), and community organizations (e.g., Houston Food Bank, Brighter Bites), the Center is designing and testing different models of FIM programs across different populations, including high-risk pregnant mothers, pediatric populations and adults with diabetes.

This year, the Center also partnered with Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) at Harvard Law school to inform the development of evidence-based FIM legislation in Texas through two webinars. These learnings have also informed the next steps for the policy and food security workgroups of the Health Equity Collective.

If you would like to learn more about our work, you can read about it here.

Brighter Bites uses a food co-op-based approach whereby everyone in the schools, including teachers, children, and their families, can participate in the program. The Center for Health Equity is the research and evaluation partner of Brighter Bites. We currently have three active school-based research efforts in partnership with Brighter Bites:

1. Nurturing Healthy Teachers to assess the impact of Brighter Bites on preschool and elementary school teacher food security, cardiometabolic, and mental health outcomes.
2. Brighter Bites Acres Homes research project as part of the Acres Homes Cancer Prevention Collaborative to assess the impact of Brighter Bites on child cardiometabolic health outcomes across schools in the Acres Homes region of Houston, TX.
3. Brighter Bites and Legacy Community Health school-based health clinics, a USDA GusNIP-funded project to establish the preliminary impact of the Brighter Bites produce prescription approach among children at-risk for obesity across Galena Park ISD school-based health clinics operated by Legacy Community Health.



Our core values of community voice and human-centered design come into action with the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Studio (CSES). The Community and Stakeholder Engagement Studio (CSES) at the Center for Health Equity offers researchers a consultative service, assisting in effective study design, intervention planning, impactful implementation, evaluation, and sustainability to support health equity for community organizations and their research partners.

Currently, the Center is leading two studios:

NIH-funded Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) in Houston, Texas. The Houston HVIP at Memorial Hermann Hospital – Texas Medical Center aims to break the cycle of violence through intervention, care, follow-up care, and attention to social determinants of health. The CSES has convened a multi-stakeholder group of community members, subject matter experts, community leaders, activists, and practitioners to guide this research effort.

Community Advisory Group for Food Is Medicine. We also launched a Community Advisory Group (CAG) of mothers who have participated in produce prescription programs, sharing their lived experiences to inform the development, implementation, and evaluation of Food Is Medicine interventions.

Since its inception in 2023, the studios have hosted nine community meetings with our studio participants.

Researchers interested in community-engaged research may contact the Center for support in the design, implementation, and/or evaluation of the community engagement component of their research. The CSES team can assist in planning and designing an impactful approach around the researcher’s specified need or question. 

Methodologically, she is interested in using community-engaged, mixed-methods, and GIS approaches to critically examine the pathways in which these non-medical determinants influence health outcomes. Dr. Bess received her PhD from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and her MPH from George Washington University.