"Opioids may have been the spark, but a spark needs kindling in order to ignite," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"The issue is trying to balance everything," says David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs, pointing out that wind energy is not easily stored. "Most of the demand is downstate, where most of the wind energy is upstate."

Citizenship for oneself or a spouse is a motivator for immigrants, says Amy Lutz, associate professor of sociology. But so is the chance to move up in the world. "The higher your socioeconomic status, the less likely you are to join the military."

"This can’t be about government doing it all. It has to be about collaboration and community cohesion. Opioids thrive on isolation. The only way to combat this problem is community," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"Drug overdose rates just as with alcohol and suicide are higher in places that exhibit more economic and social distress," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and international affairs, will serve as the inaugural Ajello Professor in Energy and Environmental Policy. The professorship was created from a $250,000 gift from Maxwell School alumnus James Ajello ’76 M.P.A.

"Economic decline is certainly an important factor, but our drug, alcohol and suicide problem is also related to social decline," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. "We live in an era of individualism, disinvestment in social safety nets, declines in social cohesion, and increased loneliness." 

"With recent investments in higher education (mis)directed toward increasing the marginal comforts of the most comfortable students, we have an opportunity to advocate instead for a rejection of such investments, sacrificing luxuries for the sake of needier students," says Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

"We won’t really know the effect of the tax plan for several years when we have data that we can try to measure the effect of the tax plan separate from other factors going on in the economy at the same time," says Len Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics.