Application
The Susan B. Meister Award for Best Paper in Child Health Policy recognizes an outstanding scientific paper in child health policy published in the past year. Awardees will be honored at the Annual Susan B. Meister Lecture in Child Health Policy and will receive a $1,000 award. ApplyNow!
Eligibility
- Paper must either be published from July 1, 2024 through December 1, 2025 or in press as of December 1, 2025. The publication date is the date the manuscript was first published online.
- Paper must be first-authored by an individual who is a current University of Michigan student (undergraduate, graduate, health professional) or postdoctoral trainee (resident, clinical fellow, postdoctoral fellow), or who was a UM student or postdoctoral trainee at the time the study was conducted.
- Paper must be submitted by an individual who can attend the 18th Annual Susan B. Meister Lecture on February 5, 2026.
Review Criteria
Specific review criteria include:
- Importance of the research question
- Quality of the methods
- Impact on child health policy
Submissions should include:
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Copy of the published or in-press manuscript
- A one-page document summarizing the findings of the paper, the importance of these findings, and how the paper has impacted pediatric health care and/pediatric health policy. The document should be single-spaced, Arial, 11-point font, with at least 0.5 inches for margins.
Application Timeline
Applications should be submitted via the form linked below.
- October 15, 2025: Call for applications opens
- December 1, 2025: Submissions due
- January 9, 2026: Winner notified
- February 5, 2026: Award will be presented at the 18th Annual Susan B. Meister Lecture
Winners
2025 Recipient
Jessica Bezek, MS
Bezek JL, Tillem S, Suarez GL, Burt SA, Vazquez AY, Michael C, Sripada C, Kump KL, Hyde LW.
Functional Brain Network Organization and Multidomain Resilience to Neighborhood Disadvantage in Youth.
Am Psychol. 2024 Nov;79(8):1123-1138. doi: 10.1037/amp0001279. PMID: 39531711
2024 Recipient
Meredith Pedde, PhD, MPH, MPP
Pedde, M., Szpiro, A., Hirth, R. et al.
Randomized design evidence of the attendance benefits of the EPA School Bus Rebate Program.
Nat Sustain 6, 838–844 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01088-7
2023 Recipient
Caroline M. Hogan, MD
Hogan CM, Waselewski ME, Szachta P, Wolff C, Amaro X, Chang T.
Perceptions of COVID-19 Vaccine Incentives Among Adolescents and Young Adults.
JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jun 1;5(6):e2216628. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.16628. PMID: 35675072; PMCID: PMC9178431.
2022 Recipient
Josephine Granner, BSN, RN, PhD
Predictors of Parenting Stress for New Fathers Point Towards Trauma-Specific Perinatal Interventions - Dissertation Chapter
2021 Recipients
Drs. Nina Masters, MPH, PhD
Masters NB, Zelner J, Delamater PL, Hutton D, Kay M, Eisenberg MC, Boulton ML.
Evaluating Michigan's Administrative Rule Change on Nonmedical Vaccine Exemptions. Pediatrics. 2021 Sep;148(3):e2021049942. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-049942. Epub 2021 Aug 17. PMID: 34404742.
Sara Abelson, MPH, PhD
Abelson S, Lipson SK, Zhou S, Eisenberg D.
Muslim Young Adult Mental Health and the 2016 US Presidential Election. JAMA Pediatr. 2020;174(11):1112–1114. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3694
2019 Recipients
Rebecca Sokol, PhD
Sokol R, Austin A, Chandler C, Byrum E, Bousquette J, Lancaster C, Doss G, Dotson, A, Urbaeva V, Singichetti B, Brevard K, Wright S, Lanier P, and Shanahan M (2019).
Screening children for social determinants of health: A systematic review. Pediatrics. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2019-1622
Elyse Thulin, PhD
Thulin EJ, McLean KE, Sevalie S, Akinsulure-Smith AM, Betancourt TS. (2020).
Mental health problems among children in Sierra Leone: assessing cultural concepts of distress. Transcultural Psychiatry. 1363461520916695.