Richard Sadler, PhD

Sadler's research integrates urban planning and public health topics related to neighborhood effects on health. Recently, this has revolved around linking urban development practices (including but going beyond redlining) that exacerbate racial and socioeconomic inequality. Sadler combines spatial analysis and community-based participatory research approaches. The overarching goal of this work is to strengthen the understanding between the built environment and health behaviors/outcomes with the goal of shaping land use policy to build healthier cities.

He has worked with Dr. Mona to analyze child blood lead levels in Flint, the related Legionella outbreak, and the prospects for right-sizing the city of Flint. His current mapping project is compiling a National Block-busting Atlas looking at the impacts of racial discrimination in housing policies and practices. 

Dick Sadler is an NIH-funded (R01, R21, U54) medical geographer with expertise in environmental science, GIS, food systems planning, and land use policy in legacy cities. He earned his PhD in Geography from the University of Western Ontario (2013) and his MPH from Johns Hopkins University (2020).