Project Objectives
Contribute to national standards for defining and measuring social connection comprehensively through scientifically rigorous survey items.
Produce consistent high-quality data that will set reliable national estimates for social connection and enable tracking of long-term trends.
Raise awareness about the powerful impact of social connection on health, including the risks of disconnection.
Catalyze action by equipping leaders and decision makers with the data they need to advocate for structural changes, foster cross-sector collaboration, innovation, research, and long-term investment in social connection.
JULIANNE HOLT-LUNSTAD, PH.D.
Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, is Social Connection in America’s Director and Chief Science Lead. She is an international scientific expert whose research has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. She is also the director of the Social Connections Lab, LLC and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. She was the lead scientific editor for a US Surgeon General’s advisory on social connection, served as a member of multiple National Academy of Sciences consensus committees, the UK Cross-Departmental Loneliness Team, European Joint Research Council, the World Health Organization, and many others. Her award-winning work has been widely recognized and regularly featured in major media outlets.
KATHERINE BRUSS, PSY.D.
Katherine Bruss, PsyD, Scientific Advisor, is a licensed clinical psychologist whose career has focused on promoting health and wellness initiatives and programs across the federal government, major universities, and non-profit organizations. In her last position, Dr. Bruss was the mental health lead in the Division of Population Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She led public-private partnerships and provided subject matter expertise in mental and social health and emotional well-being. Her work on social connection included measurement, surveillance, partnerships, publications, and communications, such as development of the website for social connection.
STEVEN MICHAEL CRANE, M.S.
Steven Michael Crane, MS, is a researcher, behavior designer, writer, and speaker working across academia and industry. At Stanford University, Steven heads the Social Engagement Pillar with Stanford Lifestyle Medicine and researches social connection interventions and psychometrics. As founder of Synaptic Insights Consulting, Steven provides research, design, and scientific advising services to a number of organizations promoting human flourishing and social connection, including with the Barnes Family Foundation since 2020.
EDNA ISHAYIK, M.A.
Edna Ishayik focuses on social connection and community engagement as a public health priority. She served as a Senior Advisor for Science and Policy in the Office of the Surgeon General for three years where she helped lead the production of, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community”. Edna also spent many years as a freelance journalist for publications such as the New York Times and New York Magazine, and as a non-profit communications director. She earned her B.A. from Rutgers University and her M.A. in journalism from New York University.
Our Academic Advisors
We are grateful to our advisors for their advice, feedback, and review.
NICHOLE ARGO, PH.D.
Founder and Executive Director at the TogetherUp Institute
ANITA CHANDRA, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
RAND Distinguished Chair in American Social Policy and past Vice President, RAND Social and Economic Well-Being
THOMAS CUDJOE, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University
KATHLEEN HARRIS, PH.D.
James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and former director and Principal Investigator of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
ICHIRO KAWACHI, MB.CHB., PH.D.
John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
ERIC KIM, PH.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia
JESSICA MAHONEY
Policy Analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity
MATTHEW PANTELL, M.D., M.S.
Associate Professor at the University of California San Francisco and pediatric hospitalist at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
Our Sponsor
The Barnes Family Foundation creates long-term initiatives that advance social well-being through innovative research, tools, and solutions.
DAN BARNES
Dan Barnes is the Executive Chair of the Barnes Family Foundation. He is a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist whose work centers on unlocking long-term impact through social innovation, connection, and collaborative problem-solving. His approach to philanthropy blends data and empathy, with a focus on sustainable models that serve the public good.
Learn more at barnesff.org