Diana R Silver

Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs

Professor of Public Health Policy and Management

Professional overview

Dr. Diana Silver's research explores the impact of variation in the implementation, adoption and repeal of state and local public health policies on health outcomes, particularly alcohol consumption, motor vehicle crashes, tobacco use, and food safety. Some of her other work has examined variation in access to publicly funded services such as clinics, after-school programs, parks and playgrounds. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and several other funders.

Dr. Silver's work has been published in a variety of prominent journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, the American Journal of Health Promotion, Public Health, Tobacco Control, Journal of Safety Research, Social Science and Medicine, the American Journal of Evaluation, PLoS One, Journal of Community Health, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health,  International Journal of Equity in Health, Globalization and Health, Youth and Society, Public Administration Review and Policy Studies Journal. She is an associate editor for the American Journal of Health Promotion, and serves on the New York City Department of Health’s Health Advisory Committee. She began her career focused on the developing policies and programs that could address the epidemics of AIDS, substance abuse and violence in New York City, in such settings as schools, workplaces, jails, and homeless shelters.

Dr. Silver teaches undergraduate and master’s level courses at the School of Global Health, and trains doctoral students. In 2015, Dr. Silver received NYU’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest honor for teaching excellence.

Education

BA, History, Bates College, Lewiston, ME

MPH, Health Education, Hunter College, New York City, NY

PhD, Public Administration, New York University, New York City, NY

Honors and awards

Distinguished Teaching Award, New York University (2015)

Steinhardt Goddard Award (2011)

Annual Award for Outstanding Evaluation, American Evaluation Association (2010)

Public Affairs Resident Scholar, The Rockefeller Foundation (2007)

Areas of research and study

Access to Healthcare

Alcohol, Tobacco and Driving Policies

Food Safety Policies

Implementation and Impact of Public Health Regulations

Injury Prevention

New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Public Health Law

Public Health Policy

Publications

Publications

Have Health Reforms in Brazil Reduced Inequities in Access to Cancer Screenings for Women?

State Legislative Strategies to Pass, Enhance, and Obscure Preemption of Local Public Health Policy-Making

Presence of Counterfeit Marlboro Gold Packs in Licensed Retail Stores in New York City: Evidence from Test Purchases

What a Difference a Grade Makes: Evidence from New York City's Restaurant Grading Policy

What Are the Financial Implications of Public Quality Disclosure? Evidence from New York City’s Restaurant Food Safety Grading Policy

Evaluating the relationship between binge drinking rates and a replicable measure of U.S. State alcohol policy environments

Planned parenthood is health care, and health care must defend it: A call to action

Changes in health care inequity in Brazil between 2008 and 2013

Compliance with minimum price and legal age for cigarette purchase laws: Evidence from NYC in advance of raising purchase age to 21

Detecting causality in policy diffusion processes

Over-the-counter sales of out-of-state and counterfeit tax stamp cigarettes in New York City

Retailer compliance with tobacco control laws in New York city before and after raising the minimum legal purchase age to 21

That's not how the learning works - the paradox of Reverse Innovation: A qualitative study

Understanding policy diffusion in the U.S.: An information-theoretical approach to unveil connectivity structures in slowly evolving complex systems

'They hear "Africa" and they think that there can't be any good services' - perceived context in cross-national learning: A qualitative study of the barriers to Reverse Innovation

Age, period, and cohort effects in motor vehicle mortality in the United States, 1980-2010: The role of sex, alcohol involvement, and position in vehicle

Diffusion of impaired driving laws among US states

Patterns of alcohol consumption and related behaviors in Brazil: Evidence from the 2013 National Health Survey (PNS 2013)

Temporal trends in motor vehicle fatalities in the United States, 1968 to 2010 - a joinpoint regression analysis

The effect of geography and citizen behavior on motor vehicle deaths in the United States

The geometry of motor vehicle deaths in the United States

Child passenger safety laws in the United States, 1978-2010: Policy diffusion in the absence of strong federal intervention

Fifty-state survey of child passenger safety laws in the US, 1978-2010: A public health approach to analyzing legal intruments

Utilization patterns and perceptions of playground users in New York City

Good Evaluation Measures: More Than Their Psychometric Properties