A Note from the Editor

Welcome to the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved’s inaugural issue for 2012, our 23rd continuous year of publication. This is our annual opportunity to mark Black History Month by bringing together a large collection of papers relating to Race, Ethnicity, and Health (Part 1). You will find a great deal of material there that advances the study of public health in racial and ethnic minority communities (as well as a paper set in Tanzania). As health care reform legislation slowly becomes a reality in the United States, we see more and more papers dedicated to questions that arise in its wake. Part 2 of this issue, Health Policy, Programs, and Reform, reflects this trend.

We have recently been joined by a new staff member, Ms. Naa Amponsah, MSPH, a Senior Editorial Assistant with special responsibility for the book we are developing on Obesity Interventions, with generous funding from the Aetna Foundation and the invaluable guidance of the Guest Editors, Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika and Dr. Ruth Zambrana, as well as an extraordinary Advisory Board.

In 2012, we look forward to publishing a series of timely and large issues. At this writing (in mid-December 2011) we have received well over 550 submissions in the year. The last year for which we have numbers for online use, 2010, saw nearly 120,000 downloads of JHCPU articles. We are proud of this growth, while recognizing that the pressing needs of the underserved are what underlie everything that we, and our readers, do. Thank you for your help and support.