as students. She will encourage research that is meaningful to communities—especially those in the Philadelphia area. Increasing knowledge about how neighborhoods affect people’s health is important for everyone, especially for children, she says. When they live in healthy neighborhoods, they have a better start in life, Dr. Diez Roux says. Like anyone else in the neighborhood, she says, children can play a role in identifying problems and finding solutions. “Kids can trigger change in the neighborhood,” she says. One way is by taking pictures to show others what is good about a place and what can be improved. “By being out there and observant, you can be good agents of change,” Dr. Diez Roux says. Dr. Diez Roux should know. It was because she was observant in Buenos Aires that she found a career in researching how neighborhoods can affect people’s health. —By Healthy Hope staff Hope Partnership for Education 17 Illustration by Julia Olszewski, James Dobson Fit Fin