HEALTH, PLACE & SPATIAL DATA SCIENCE
Our lab links geography, open GIS, & computational social science to measure the multiple dimensions of place. We explore how social, spatial, racial, built environment, and structural drivers influence health. We also build apps for social change with & for communities.
HEROP Projects
Explore & learn more about ongoing, active, & archived projects at the lab.
News
Catch up on the latest projects, read about recent publications, or learn about upcoming events of the Healthy Regions & Policies Lab.
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The Summer of 2026 was a busy one for the Healthy Regions & Policies team! Lab members presented research papers, held workshops, and traveled across the world to share their latest work and make new connections. Academic conferencing is one of the best ways to get feedback on your work, be inspired by others, and…
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Join us for an upcoming free, technical workshop on accessing community spatial data in R. Building on our prior workshop that introduced spatial data, we’ll focus on finding, accessing, and integrating community-level data in an R-spatial environment. Accessing Community Spatial Data in R August 31, 2026 | 11:30 – 1:00PM CT | REGISTER by 8/29 This virtual…
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Rachel Loftus, HeRoP Lab alum, is this year’s University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recipient of the Jerome D. Fellman Award. The award recognizes her senior thesis work on measuring the impact of public libraries across multiple community-level social determinants of health, from education to health resources, social cohesion, and more. Her work helps towards contributing new…
2026 Conferences
HEROP will be at the following conferences this year. As we get more details, we’ll link here!
American Association of Geographers
March 2026
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San Francisco, California
Society for Epidemiological Research
June 2026
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Phoenix, AZ
GeoMED Conference
June 2026
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Pamplona, Spain
International Medical Geography Symposium
July 2026
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
SDOH & Place Symposium
September 2026
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Chicago, IL
Healthy Regions & Policies Lab 