Our mission as a department is to conduct education and research into applications of interdisciplinary and/or multi-level approaches to understanding behavior and facilitating behavior change in individuals and groups. Our educational goal is to train the next generation of students (undergraduate, MPH, MS/PhD, MD) to engage in research and programmatic activities to reduce the population burden of disease. Faculty members will engage in basic research at the individual, family, organization, community, population, and policy levels to further elucidate mechanisms! and causal pathways of behavior including biological/genetic mechanisms and social and behavioral determinants of health; in intervention studies for prevention and treatment; and in dissemination and policy research. This section will advance the central role of behavior in understanding and improving health among individuals, groups, and population.