Public Health

‘We have to move faster’: Grappling with Harris County’s maternal health crisis

Maternal death rates in Harris County, particularly among Black and Hispanic women, have been among the highest in the country since 2016, according to a report released earlier this year by Harris County Public Health.

From battling pandemics to serving the uninsured, why Houston’s health care leadership is more important than ever before

Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist, helped lead Houston through the COVID-19 pandemic by prioritizing the public’s accessibility to the COVID-19 vaccine, and he was the first hospital system CEO to introduce an employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Harris County appears to be losing more trees than it is planting. New datasets explore which neighborhoods lost the most.

New datasets on the Kinder Institute’s Urban Data Platform (UDP) make it possible to understand how tree canopy coverage has changed in the past decade across the Houston region. In short: We appear to be losing trees faster than we are planting them.

Research shows benefits of guaranteed income as launch of Harris County pilot program nears

With applications for the new local guaranteed income program Uplift Harris now closed, the pilot is preparing to launch.

National climate report features Kinder Institute research on Harris County disasters

A new comprehensive federal report documenting the effects of climate change across the country includes Kinder Institute research to bring attention to Harris County’s vulnerabilities.