









































November 2022 Volume  7 Issue 1

1

Lindsey Realmuto, MPH

BUILDING A RECEPTIVE AUDIENCE FOR HIA:
A PHD STUDENT’S JOURNEY TO CREATE AN HIA COURSE 

Abstract

There are few academic institutions in the United States currently offering courses on Health 
Impact Assessment (HIA). This commentary describes a PhD student’s experience in building 
a receptive audience for an HIA course within the Urban Planning and Policy program at the 
University of Illinois at Chicago, how they went about developing the course, and details about 
the course and its implementation. Key lessons learned from the experience of developing and 
implementing the course include: having a real-life HIA project for students to work on can be 
challenging but very rewarding, for both students and partners; utilizing virtual meeting technology 
to invite guest lecturers from across the world provided an enriching learning experience; and 
providing clear milestones and setting deadlines for different components of the HIA is helpful for 
students as they work through the different HIA steps. While the course was successful by almost 
all metrics, institutionalizing HIA courses within interdisciplinary planning/public health programs 
remains an ongoing challenge.



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Background 
When I was finishing my Master of Public Health 
program at George Washington University, I 
thought I was done with school. PhD program? 
No thank you, absolutely not. In my professional 
life I had always been interested in the 
intersection of health and urban planning and I 
thought I could get by with what I had learned 
in my master program and my professional 
experiences. The decision to return to school 
was a direct outcome of my experience 
conducting a health impact assessment (HIA) 
on the East Harlem neighborhood plan in 2015. 
My experience with this HIA left me feeling like 
I knew about urban planning, but not enough. I 
wanted to deepen my knowledge. I thus decided 
to pursue a PhD in Urban Planning and Policy.

As I started my first year at University of Illinois 
at Chicago’s Department of Urban Planning in 
2019, I was full of energy to bring my ten years 
of experience working in public health to bare 
in this new academic pursuit. My first semester 
I took a Planning Healthy Cities course with a 
faculty member who had previously written 
about incorporating health into planning 
programs (Botchwey et al., 2009) and I told him 
about my professional experiences, particularly 
with HIA. As a result, he asked me to do a guest 
lecture on HIA for his Planning Studio class in 
the spring 2020 semester. The guest lecture 
was well received and from the students I 
sensed an interest in learning more. Around 
the same time, I started working on a research 
project in UIC’s School of Public Health and was 
excited to hear that the university was starting a 
joint public health and urban planning graduate 
degree program (MPH/MUPP). The timing of 
my PhD at UIC seemed perfect for someone 
interested in bridging the public health and 
planning fields. 

I began to ask around, does UIC offer (or have 
they ever offered) an HIA class? No. Are there 

other classes that bring the planning and public 
health students together? Besides the planning 
healthy cities course, an urban food systems 
course, and curriculum typical of environmental 
& occupational health programs in the School 
of Public Health, there were not a lot of 
interdisciplinary courses. In talking with the 
professor who had invited me to speak on HIAs 
for the studio class, I was encouraged to develop 
a draft HIA course to present to the department. 

Developing the Course
Building off my experience conducting HIA 
trainings with the San Francisco Department 
of Public Health Program on Health Equity 
and Sustainability as well as training materials 
available from other organizations, specifically 
Human Impact Partners, I developed a course 
syllabus and presented it to department 
leadership in early spring 2021. Feedback 
on the syllabus was mostly supportive and 
constructive, but the department’s primary 
concern was whether there would be enough 
interest and enrollment in the class to justify 
having it. Since I had already been asked to 
do a repeat of my guest lecture on HIA for the 
planning studio class in a few weeks, I used that 
lecture opportunity to do a quick poll among 
students to gauge interest and report back to 
department leadership. In that guest lecture 
poll, nearly 80% of 34 responding students 
indicated they were interested or very interested 
in taking an HIA class. With this information, I 
received the green light to teach the class and 
was put on the schedule for spring 2022.

I spent fall 2021 finalizing the syllabus and 
readings as well as reaching out to guest 
presenters and potential project partners. As 
part of this process, I reached out to several 
colleagues that I knew through Society of 
Practitioners of Health Impact Assessment 
(SOPHIA) about their experiences teaching 
HIA and asked them to share their syllabus. I 



Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

3

compared my syllabus to theirs to see if I was 
missing any major topics, issues, or important 
readings. For potential projects, I reached out to 
professional connections I had in organizations 
around Chicago, but I also surveyed different 
planning initiatives going on in the city. Were 
there opportunities to collaborate where an 
HIA makes sense? The projects had to roughly 
align with the timing of the class, which can be 
very challenging, but I was able to identify two 
potential projects for students to work on (more 
detail on those below). With this component 
finalized, I was ready to teach the course in the 
spring.

Organization and details about the 
course

Course details
The HIA course was a graduate level class 
offered over a 16-week semester in spring 2022. 
It was a hybrid virtual/in-person model. The first 
four weeks were held virtually as the University 
felt it was safer to hold virtual cases during 
the peak-Omicron COVID-19 wave and the 
rest of the class sessions were held in-person 
(except on a few occasions due to personal 
circumstances). I also offered a virtual option in 
the event students needed to isolate for COVID-
related exposure or illness (i.e., students could 
connect via Zoom to the in-person classroom). 
The class had 10 students, representing five 
MUPP students, four MUPP/MPH students, 
and one MPH student. I also had one additional 
MUPP student who audited the course. To note, 
the class was not required for any of the degree 
programs mentioned. 

Class Organization
Broadly, the course was broken into two 
segments. The first segment – taught within the 
first seven weeks – was devoted to teaching the 
different steps of HIA in-depth so that students 
could feel prepared to begin working on the 

main assignment for the course – which was a 
team HIA project. The other segment during the 
second half of the semester covered a number 
of different topics relevant to the practice of 
HIA, for example, the consideration of equity, 
community engagement, and institutionalizing 
health considerations into decision making (see 
full course syllabus - Appendix A). For several 
of the class sessions in the second half of the 
semester, I invited guest speakers for specific 
topics, which included equitable transit-oriented 
development, Health in All Policies, Equity 
in HIA and HIAs in the international context. 
In one of the last class sessions, I facilitated 
a professional panel of four guest speakers 
whose careers spanned the health and planning 
worlds. All of the invited speakers were from 
my professional network or recommended by 
someone within that network. 

Assignments
As part of the course, the students had one 
individual case study assignment and the 
larger team HIA project. For the case study 
assignment, each student had to choose an HIA 
from a list (curated by me) to read in-depth and 
present to the class. The goal of this assignment 
was for the students to get a sense of different 
HIAs that have been done, the breadth of 
topics covered, and teach the other students 
what they learned from the HIA.  For the team 
HIA projects, the students were split into two 
groups, and each worked with a project partner: 
the Chicago Department of Planning and 
Development and Cabrini Green Legal Aid. For 
this project, they had a mid-term presentation 
to discuss their progress, a final presentation, 
and a final report.  The students were able to 
complete the HIA within the timeframe of the 
class. The students were primarily evaluated on 
these two assignments, but their final grades 
were also determined by their level of in-class 
participation and the results of a peer and 
project partner evaluation survey distributed at 
the end of the semester.



Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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HIA Projects
The two HIA projects chosen for the class 
were both curated by me prior to the start 
of the semester. While I think it is helpful for 
students to get experience conducting the 
HIA Scoping step and understanding how one 
might decide to engage in an HIA, the timeline 
of an academic semester is generally not 
sufficient.  It does not provide enough time 
for students to find a topic area, go through 
the scoping phase, and come to a decision on 
whether to conduct the HIA. Although this was 
an urban planning focused class, I did aim to 
find HIA projects that went outside the normal 
transportation/urban planning field in order to 
facilitate a greater understanding of the wide 
range of social, environmental, economic, and 
political determinants of health. With this in 
mind, I contacted Cabrini Green Legal Aid, a 
legal aid organization based out of Chicago that 
participates in policy advocacy at the state level 
(Cabrini Green Legal Aid, 2022). I approached 
the CGLA policy team about the class with 
information about HIAs, their goals, and whether 
they were working on any policy agenda’s that 
may benefit from such a project. I luckily found 
very welcome and interested colleagues who 
saw value in bringing health data into their 
advocacy efforts.

The second HIA project came about more as 
a function of planning projects going on in 
Chicago. The Chicago Department of Planning 
and Community Development was in the 
process of doing a neighborhood planning study 
of a 5 mile stretch of Western Avenue (Chicago’s 
longest North/South Street – spanning 25 
miles) (Chicago Department of Planning and 
Development, 2022). I heard about the planning 
study through various channels and reached 
out to the lead planner to tell them about the 
class, what HIAs are, and if they would be 
interested in working with a group of students 
on an HIA of the planning study. Again, I was 

pleasantly surprised to receive a positive and 
quick response. After a telephone conversation 
with the planner shortly thereafter, I had the 
second project. At the end of the semester, I 
asked both project partners to fill out a brief 
survey about the student’s performance and 
their experiences with the project. I also had a 
follow-up call with one of the project partners to 
further discuss the project. 

Outcomes, Lessons Learned, and 
Recommendations 
In addition to the evaluation survey sent by 
the university, I sent a survey to the students 
at the end of the semester asking specific 
questions related to the structure of the course, 
assignments, and my performance as an 
instructor. Feedback and recommendations 
provided below are largely based on responses 
from this additional survey. Based on informal 
and formal feedback received from the 
students, the course went very well and was well 
received. The student feedback and interest in 
the course revealed a real desire to have more 
opportunities to work and study interdisciplinary 
topics that bridge planning and health. The 
creation of the MUPP/MPH degree at UIC and 
the feedback received from students speaks to 
the desire of graduate students to have this type 
of interdisciplinary exposure and training. 

The overall structure and content of the 
course fit nicely into the weekly seminar class 
structure and the 16-week semester, although 
I know the students would have preferred to 
have some extra time to complete their HIA. 
The inclusion of guest speakers was one of the 
strongest aspects of the course. It provided 
students with a broader range and greater 
depth of understanding about the topics 
covered in class and introduced them to a wide 
array of professionals – locally, nationally, and 
internationally - working within the planning/
health realm in some way. Although most of 



Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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our classes were held in-person, the ability 
to use virtual conferencing software within 
the classroom setting was a major asset in 
that I could invite speakers from across the 
country (and even across the world) to speak 
to the class. In this case, the virtual normalcy 
engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic was 
a huge benefit as it broadened the pool of 
individuals I thought to invite and made the 
class much richer in terms of the variety of 
perspectives represented.

The project partners also seemed very satisfied 
with the caliber of the projects and work of the 
students. In evaluating the work of the HIAs, one 
of the project partners noted:

The team assembled some really useful data 
and recommendations. This HIA will hopefully 
help support the need for these initiatives 
in [neighborhood name] … I appreciate the 
thoughtful work and enthusiastic participation! 

The two HIA projects worked out incredibly 
well, although the timing wasn’t perfect. A 
major challenge of working on real life projects 
within an academic semester timeline is that 
it’s so difficult to align with the project timeline. 
It’s important to be upfront about that and 
communicate appropriate expectations with 
both the students and the project partners. Be 
honest about what is possible and feasible. 

In terms of the HIA case studies, I aimed to 
choose a broad range of HIA topics, methods, 
and geographic locations. I believe this helps 
students engage more fully with a broader 
range of social determinants of health and 
better understand different methodological 
approaches in HIA. As part of our case studies, I 
also included a racial equity impact assessment, 
and I am so happy that I did. Not that I am an 
expert on racial equity impact assessments but 
there was a lot of interest from the students on 

this topic and one even mentioned they would 
have liked to spend more time on this topic. 
While equity has always been a fundamental 
driver of HIA work, I believe it is important for 
current and future HIA practitioners to consider 
racial equity explicitly. I hope to incorporate 
more on this in future iterations of the course.

For their HIA project, I wanted to provide 
students with a decent amount of autonomy, 
and I tried my best to provide at least 10-15 
minutes at the end of each class for the teams 
to meet and work together (with the expectation 
that they would also meet outside of class). I 
also made myself available to answer questions 
during this time and in designated office hours. 
Based on feedback from the students, there 
could have been more structured assignments 
to help them work through the different HIA 
steps throughout the semester (e.g., creating 
a pathway diagram, completing the literature 
review, etc.). I found this to be one of the most 
helpful pieces of feedback on the course. 
It is clear to me that this needs to be more 
structured and that providing deadlines on 
specific components of the HIA can be a useful 
experience for the students. For any novice (or 
even experienced) HIA practitioner, it is useful to 
have strong guideposts along the way. 

Conclusions
As of the time of this writing, I have been 
invited to teach the HIA course again in the 
spring 2023 semester. And while I am excited 
that I have succeeded in building a receptive 
and interested audience for this course, and 
hopefully the intersection of health and planning 
more broadly, I feel less optimistic about the 
sustainability of the course. My assumption is 
that as soon as I am done with my PhD and if I 
am no longer there, the course will disappear 
as well. In many ways this feels analogous to 
the state of HIA more generally; without proper 
resources and policies to make it part of the 



Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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system, their future is unknown. Despite these 
challenges, we keep moving forward, working 
to build those receptive audiences, inspiring 

interdisciplinary professionals, and promoting 
the values of HIA in our everyday lives.



Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

7

Appendix A – Course Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction to the course; Understanding the relationship between public health and 
planning; Social Determinants of Health
Required Readings:

• Corburn J. (2004). Confronting the Challenges in Reconnecting Urban Planning and Public 
Health. Available at: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/epub/10.2105/AJPH.94.4.541 

• Schilling J, Linton LS. The public health roots of zoning: in search of active living's 
legal genealogy. Am J Prev Med. 2005 Feb;28(2 Suppl 2):96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.
amepre.2004.10.028. PMID: 15694517.

• Review CDC Social Determinants of Health page: https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/
index.htm  

Week 2: Introduction to HIA history and practice; Review Screening and Scoping steps; Introduction 
to HIA projects
Required Readings: 

• Dannenberg, AL. A Brief History of Health Impact Assessment in the United States. http://
journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21348 

• Human Impact Partners. Screening Worksheet.
• SOPHIA. Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment. https://

hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf (pages 
1-6 - stop at Standards for the Assessment Step)

• Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment. Summary - 
https://www.nap.edu/read/13229/chapter/3 (pages 3-13)

• Review Health Impact Project - HIAs and Other Resources to Advance Health-Informed 
Decisions: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/
hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1 

Week 3: Health Pathway Diagrams; Review Assessment step (pt. 1) – Baseline Conditions
Required readings:

• Skim Executive Summary: SNAP Benefits HIA
• Complex Causal Process Diagrams for Analyzing the Health Impacts of Policy Interventions. 

Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470508/
• SOPHIA. Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment. https://

hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf (pages 
6-8; Standards for the Assessment Step)

• WHO. Health Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cities. https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/
pdf_file/0007/101500/HIA_Toolkit_1.pdf (Pages 13 – 19; 2.2 Appraisal: assessment – STOP 
at Reporting and Dissemination)

• Community Health Assessment or Healthy Community Assessment: Whose Community? 
Whose Health? Whose Assessment? By Trevor Hancock and Meredith Minkler from 
Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and Welfare

• Review the CDC Built Environment Assessment Tool: https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/
state-local-programs/built-environment-assessment/index.htm 

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/epub/10.2105/AJPH.94.4.541
ttps://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/index.htm 
ttps://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/index.htm 
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21348
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21348
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf
https://www.nap.edu/read/13229/chapter/3 (pages 3-13)
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1 
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470508/
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/HIA-Practice-Standards-September-2014.pdf
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/101500/HIA_Toolkit_1.pdf
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/101500/HIA_Toolkit_1.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-programs/built-environment-assessment/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-programs/built-environment-assessment/index.htm


Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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HIA Presentation: SNAP Benefits HIA

Week 4: Review Assessment step (pt. 2) – Literature Reviews, Collecting Primary Data 
Required Readings:

• UNC Health Sciences Library: Literature Review. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/c.
php?g=8369&p=2634604 

• Avey H. (2015). HIA Research: When is Qualitative Research Warranted? Available at: https://
humanimpact.org/hia-research-when-is-qualitative-research-warranted/  

• Reumers LM, et. al. (2021). Quantitative health impact assessment methodology for societal 
initiatives: A scoping review, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Volume 86. Available 
at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925520307873 

• Skim Executive Summary: Family Unity, Family Health HIA

Optional Readings:
• Health Impact and Social Value of Interventions, Services, and Policies: A Methodological 

Discussion of Health Impact Assessment and Social Return on Investment Methodologies. 
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00049/full

HIA Presentation: Family Unity, Family Health HIA

Week 5: Review Assessment step (pt. 3) – Assessing Impacts; Developing Recommendations, and 
Reporting Step
Required Readings:

• (Skim) EPA. The Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Resource and Tool Compilation: A 
Comprehensive Toolkit for New and Experienced HIA Practitioners in the U.S., available 
at: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-07/documents/hia_resource_and_tool_
compilation.pdf 

• SFDPH Environmental Health. TransBASE: Linking Transportation Systems to Our Health. 
https://sfdph.org/dph/hc/HCAgen/HCAgen2014/May%206/TransBASE%20Dec2013%20
FINAL-2.pdf 

• SOPHIA. Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment. Pages 
8-9 – Standards for Reporting

• WHO. Health Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cities. Pages 19-20. 2.2.3 Reporting and 
dissemination.

Optional:
• Skim Executive Summary: SF Road Pricing
• Review OECD “Modelling work in public health: the OECD’s SPHeP models.” Available at:  

https://www.oecd.org/health/modelling-work-in-public-health.htm 
• Health Equity Implications of Retail Cannabis Regulation in LA County. http://publichealth.

lacounty.gov/chie/reports/Cannabis_HIA_Final_7_15.pdf 
• Urban Institute. Do no harm guide: Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualization -  https://

www.urban.org/research/publication/do-no-harm-guide-applying-equity-awareness-data-
visualization 

https://guides.lib.unc.edu/c.php?g=8369&p=2634604
https://guides.lib.unc.edu/c.php?g=8369&p=2634604
https://humanimpact.org/hia-research-when-is-qualitative-research-warranted/
https://humanimpact.org/hia-research-when-is-qualitative-research-warranted/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925520307873 
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-07/documents/hia_resource_and_tool_compilation.pdf
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-07/documents/hia_resource_and_tool_compilation.pdf
https://sfdph.org/dph/hc/HCAgen/HCAgen2014/May%206/TransBASE%20Dec2013%20FINAL-2.pdf 
https://sfdph.org/dph/hc/HCAgen/HCAgen2014/May%206/TransBASE%20Dec2013%20FINAL-2.pdf 
https://www.oecd.org/health/modelling-work-in-public-health.htm
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/chie/reports/Cannabis_HIA_Final_7_15.pdf
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/chie/reports/Cannabis_HIA_Final_7_15.pdf
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/do-no-harm-guide-applying-equity-awareness-data-visualization
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/do-no-harm-guide-applying-equity-awareness-data-visualization
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/do-no-harm-guide-applying-equity-awareness-data-visualization


Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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HIA Presentation: SF Road Pricing

Week 6: HIA Evaluation & Monitoring; HIA Effectiveness
Required Readings:

• SOPHIA. Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment. (Page 
10; Evaluation and Monitoring)

• WHO. Health Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cities. (Pages 21-22; 2.3 Monitoring and 
evaluation: did the health impact assessment lead to any change?)

• American Planning Association. Metrics for Planning Healthy Communities. https://www.
planning.org/publications/document/9127204/ 

• Dannenberg, AL. Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessments: A Synthesis of Data from Five 
Impact Evaluation Reports. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27362932

• Do Health Impact Assessments Promote Healthier Decision-Making? - https://www.
pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/02/do-health-impact-
assessments-promote-healthier-decision-making

• The effectiveness of health impact assessment in influencing decision-making in Australia 
and New Zealand 2005-2009. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24341545

• Skim Executive Summary: Alternatives to Prison HIA

HIA Presentation: Alternatives to Prison HIA

Week 7: Community Engagement in HIA
Required Readings:

• Community, Community Development, and the Forming of Authentic Partnerships: Some 
Critical Reflections by Ronald Labonte from Community Organizing and Community Building 
for Health and Welfare

• Guidance and Best Practices for Stakeholder Participation in Health Impact Assessments. 
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/guide-for-stakeholder-participation.pdf

• Health impact assessment in the UK planning system: the possibilities and limits of 
community engagement. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22801987 

• PolicyLink. Arts and Culture: Creates new ways to engage. https://www.
communitydevelopment.art/ 

• Farhang L, Heller J. (2016) Advocacy in HIA: Increasing Our Effectiveness and Relevance as 
Practitioners to Address Health, Equity, and Democracy. http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/
chia/article/view/21350 

• OR https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2016/10/tce_brief.pdf 

Optional Reading:
• Skim Executive Summary: San Diego Restorative Justice HIA
• Iroz-Elardo N, McSharry McGrath M. (2016). Social Learning Through Stakeholder 

Engagement: New Pathways from Participation to Health Equity in U.S. West Coast HIA. 
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21351  

https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9127204/
https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9127204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27362932 
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/02/do-health-impact-assessments-promote-healthier-decision-making 
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/02/do-health-impact-assessments-promote-healthier-decision-making 
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/02/do-health-impact-assessments-promote-healthier-decision-making 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24341545 
https://hiasociety.org/resources/Documents/guide-for-stakeholder-participation.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22801987
https://www.communitydevelopment.art/
https://www.communitydevelopment.art/
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21350
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21350
https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2016/10/tce_brief.pdf
http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/chia/article/view/21351


Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

10

HIA Presentation: San Diego Restorative Justice HIA
Week 82: Student presentations on HIA progress

NO READINGS OR HIA PRESENTATION

Week 9: Promoting Health Through Zoning Reforms - Opportunities and Challenges
 Guest Speaker on equitable Transit-Oriented Development
Required Readings:

• Associations between active living-oriented zoning and no adult leisure-time physical activity 
in the U.S. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27364934/ 

• Hanlon, J. Success by design: HOPE VI, new urbanism, and the neoliberal transformation of 
public housing in the United States. Environment and Planning A. https://journals-sagepub-
com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1068/a41278 

• Tehrani, SO. et. al. The Color of Health: Residential Segregation, Light Rail Transit 
Developments, and Gentrification in the United States. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
articles/PMC6801918/ OR Transit-Oriented Displacement or Community Dividends? – 
chapter 5

• Incomplete Streets – intro

HIA Presentation: TOD and Health HIA

Week 10: Promotion of Equity in HIA
 Guest Speaker: Illinois Public Health Institute
Required Readings:

• Promoting Equity through the Practice of Health Impact Assessment: https://www.naccho.
org/uploads/downloadable-resources/Programs/Community-Health/HIA-Promoting-Equity.
pdf

• Health Impact Assessment of Transportation Projects and Policies: Living Up to Aims 
of Advancing Population Health and Health Equity? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/30601724/ 

• Towards environmental health equity in health impact assessment: innovations and 
opportunities. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29911285/ 

• Health Equity Impact Assessment workbook (skim): http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/
programs/heia/docs/workbook.pdf

• (Skim) Racial Equity Impact Assessments: https://www.dcracialequity.org/racial-equity-
impact-assessments 

Optional Readings:
• Equity Metrics
• Communicating about Equity (SOPHIA resource)
• Center for Neighborhood Technology. Equity in Practice: A guidebook for transit agencies. 

https://www.cnt.org/transportation-and-community-development 
• Metropolitan Planning Council: https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/roadmap.

aspx

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27364934/
https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1068/a41278
https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1068/a41278
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6801918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6801918/
https://www.naccho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/Programs/Community-Health/HIA-Promoting-Equity.pdf
https://www.naccho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/Programs/Community-Health/HIA-Promoting-Equity.pdf
https://www.naccho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/Programs/Community-Health/HIA-Promoting-Equity.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30601724/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30601724/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29911285/
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/heia/docs/workbook.pdf
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/heia/docs/workbook.pdf
https://www.dcracialequity.org/racial-equity-impact-assessments
https://www.dcracialequity.org/racial-equity-impact-assessments
https://www.cnt.org/transportation-and-community-development
https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/roadmap.aspx 
https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/roadmap.aspx 


Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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HIA Presentation: Chicago Racial Equity Assessment

Week 11: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS
Week 12: Institutionalizing health in decision making
 Guest Speaker on Health in All Policies 
Required Readings:

• Health Impact Project. HIAs and Other Resources to Advance Health-Informed Decisions 
(review different tools) – https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-
visualizations/2015/hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1 

• American Planning Association. Integrating Health Into the Comprehensive Planning Process. 
Available at: https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9148247/ 

• National Conference of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-
impact-assessments.aspx

• Urban health: an example of a “health in all policies” approach in the context of SDGs 
implementation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31856877/ 

• Public Health Institute. Health in All Policies: Improving Health Through Intersectoral 
Collaboration. Available at: https://www.phi.org/thought-leadership/health-in-all-policies-
improving-health-through-intersectoral-collaboration/ 

Optional Readings:
• Health Impact Project. Health Notes. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/

articles/2019/06/19/health-impact-project-health-notes 
• Kansas Health Institute – Health Impact Checklist: https://www.khi.org/policy/article/HI-C 

HIA Presentation: Kentucky Pregnant Workers HIA

Week 13: Environmental Impact Assessments and Health; Climate and Health
Required readings:

• Bhatia, R & Wernham, A. Integrating human health into environmental impact assessment: an 
unrealized opportunity for environmental health and justice. Environ Health Perspect. 2008 
Aug;116(8):991-1000. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516559/ 

• Integrated Environmental Health Impact Assessment for Risk Governance Purposes; Across 
What Do We Integrate? Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26703709/ 

• Dannenberg, A.L., Rogerson, B. & Rudolph, L. Optimizing the health benefits of climate change 
policies using health impact assessment. J Public Health Pol 41, 139–154 (2020). https://doi.
org/10.1057/s41271-019-00189-y. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/
s41271-019-00189-y#citeas 

• Kovats, R. S., Menne, B., Ahern, M. J., & Patz, J. A. (2003). National assessments of health 
impacts of climate change: a review. Climate change and health: risks and responses. 
Geneva, World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/
climatechangechap9.pdf?ua=1 

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map?sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1
https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9148247/
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-impact-assessments.aspx
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-impact-assessments.aspx
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31856877/
https://www.phi.org/thought-leadership/health-in-all-policies-improving-health-through-intersectoral-collaboration/
https://www.phi.org/thought-leadership/health-in-all-policies-improving-health-through-intersectoral-collaboration/
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2019/06/19/health-impact-project-health-notes
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2019/06/19/health-impact-project-health-notes
https://www.khi.org/policy/article/HI-C
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516559/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26703709/
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-019-00189-y
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-019-00189-y
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-019-00189-y#citeas
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-019-00189-y#citeas
https://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/climatechangechap9.pdf?ua=1  
https://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/climatechangechap9.pdf?ua=1  


Building a Receptive Audience for HIA Realmuto

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HIA Presentation: Climate Change in Kivalina, Alaska HIA

Week 14: Bridging the Professional Gap
• Guest lecture panel of 3-4 individuals whose professional careers bridge the planning/public 

health fields

HIA Presentation: The Long Road Home: Decreasing Barriers to Public Housing for People with 
Criminal Records

NO OTHER READINGS FOR CLASS

Week 15: HIAs in the International Context
Required Readings:

• Health impact assessment in Latin American countries: Current practice and prospects; 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925516302335 

• Health impact assessment and health equity in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review;
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925519301817 

• Review: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/health-impact-assessment 

HIA Presentation: No place like home? Exploring the health and well-being impact of COVID-19 on 
housing and housing insecurity: Supplementary Report (Wales)

• https://phwwhocc.co.uk/whiasu/hia-reports/
• https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11480-7

Week 16: Student HIA Presentations

METHODS OF EVALUATION & GRADING POLICIES

Evaluation Criteria
You will be graded on both your individual contributions to class and a final team project. As part of 
the final project, I will be asking each member of the HIA teams to evaluate each other, the results 
of which will account for 5 out of the 40 points for the Final HIA report and presentation. 
Point Breakdown for Determining Final Course Grade:
I will provide more detailed information on how assignments will be evaluated over the course of 
the semester.

Class participation – 20 points, 20%
Mid-semester HIA progress presentation – 20 points, 20%
HIA Case Presentation – 20 points, 20%=
Final HIA Report and Presentation – 40 points, 40%
Total Points: 100

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925516302335
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925519301817
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/health-impact-assessment
https://phwwhocc.co.uk/whiasu/hia-reports/
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11480-7


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References
Botchwey, N. D., Hobson, S. E., Dannenberg, A. L., Mumford, K. G., Contant, C. K., McMillan, T. E., et al. 

(2009). A model curriculum for a course on the built environment and public health: Training for an 
interdisciplinary workforce. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 36(2 Suppl), 63. doi:10.1016/j.
amepre.2008.10.003

Cabrini Green Legal Aid. Homepage. Retrieved Oct 14, 2022, from https://www.cgla.net 

Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Western avenue corridor study. Retrieved Oct 14, 2022, 
from https://www.chicago.gov/content/city/en/sites/western-avenue/home.html 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Lindsey Realmuto, MPH, PhD (c)
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Urban Planning and Policy
412 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Lrealm2@uic.edu

CHIA Staff:

Editor-in-Chief 
Cynthia Stone, DrPH, RN, Professor, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana 
University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Journal Manager 
Angela Evertsen, BS, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue 
University Indianapolis 

Chronicles of Health Impact Assessment Vol. 7 Issue 1 (2022) DOI: 10.18060/26567
© 2022 Author(s): Realmuto, L.
        This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the HIA course students and project partners for their constructive 
and helpful feedback that helped to inform this paper.

https://www.cgla.net
https://www.chicago.gov/content/city/en/sites/western-avenue/home.html 

