Dr. Hemant Jain is the director of the Journey Health Foundation Research Center. Photo by Angela Foster.
On Tuesday, Feb. 17, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Journey Health Foundation Research Center (JHFRC) hosted its inaugural Data Summit at the Wolford Family Athletic Center.
The summit was organized to further JHFRC’s mission using data to “connect dots by showing how the access to and quality of housing, education, jobs, transportation, safety and social networks impact our health and well-being.”
Dr. Robert Dooley, dean of the Gary W. Rollins College of Business, welcomed the audience—comprised of faculty members, community partners and regional leaders from the Chattanooga area—hoping to build more partnerships to help better understand the region’s overall health.
“Our partnership with Journey Health Foundation began in 2024 with a generous gift to establish this center with the Center’s mission of acquiring, curating and sharing data related to the social determinants of health and economic disparities across the Chattanooga region,” Dooley said. “Through this investment, our faculty and students are applying advanced analytics to better understand regional health outcomes and generate practical evidence-based solutions.”
Audience members then heard from Dr. Hemant Jain—JHFRC director and W. Max Finley Chair in Business, Free Enterprise and Capitalism—and operations manager Shelley Kay about the center’s initiatives, including the Annual Census Tract Profile Report, the REACH Fund and the DATAA Student Internship Program.
The activity aimed to showcase the community-level data currently available and identify what data is missing to provide a more complete picture of local challenges and potential solutions.
“As a country, if you think about it, we spend a huge amount of money treating people’s sickness,” Jain explained. “Last decade, we started realizing that we don’t do much or spend a lot of money on preventing people from getting sick, they stay healthy, and there is a lot of research behind that.
“People agree that the health of people depends on the social determinants, which means the conditions where they live. So, if we can improve those social determinants, we can improve health.”
Jain added that acquiring more relevant data will help in understanding these social determinants, an effort Dooley described as a community-wide push to improve regional health.
“Time and time again, this community has shown that when we come together across education, healthcare, government, business and anthropology, we can transform challenges into strengths,” Dooley said.
Chancellor Lori Bruce closed the summit by discussing the expertise on campus and the positive impact that it can have on the community.
“The one thing that a university has is human capital,” Bruce said. “We have faculty, we have staff, we have students and we can have fancy labs and computers, but the thing that really adds value is the expertise of our people. I am always excited when I see opportunities for us to use the expertise for the good of the community, for the good of the state, the nation.
“With the knowledge of the fact that in Tennessee, we’re one of the states with one of the lowest life expectancies. Within the state, our area is one of the lowest. This is very meaningful work to bring together a data center that will empower informed decision-making that can extend the lives of Tennesseans and extend the lives of people in this community.”
Learn more
Gary W. Rollins College of Business
Journey Health Foundation Research Center
Annual Census Tract Profile Report
