Health inequity in America is not an accident of biology; it is built into neighborhoods, budgets, and legislation. In Bridging Policy and Community, sociologist N. Jacob Agwu offers a practical framework for closing the gap between the data analysts who measure health disparities and the communities who live them.
Drawing on his fellowship research with the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians and his doctoral training at the University at Albany, Agwu combines quantitative scoring systems, legislative and policy review, and qualitative interviews with frontline stakeholders. Through in-depth case studies of NYC Health + Hospitals, Community Healthcare Network, and City Harvest, he shows how community health workers, co-located behavioral health services, and food justice programs deliver measurable improvements in outcomes, and how those results can be translated into state-level advocacy wins.
The book pairs original data tables, priority matrices, and integration maps with the human stories behind them, from diabetes in the South Bronx to pediatric asthma in city schools. The result is a blueprint for advocates, clinicians, public health students, and policymakers who want evidence and lived experience to work as one body of proof, treating equity not as an afterthought but as a design principle.
