Mapchats Webinar: PolicyMap in the Classroom: A Tool for Public Health and Sociology Courses

PolicyMap in the Classroom

PolicyMap is currently being used in over 90 universities across the country to produce research insights, to serve as a supplemental resource for students and to facilitate learning in the classroom. As data and data visualization become increasingly important in decision-making, it is more critical than ever that students in a variety of fields understand how to work with data and analytical tools.


Miss the webinar? You’re in luck. You can watch the full webinar recording and view each presenter’s slides below.

April 21 | 2 – 3 PM ET

PolicyMap’s popular Mapchats webinar series returns to the classroom on April 21st from 2–3 PM ET with a panel of educators from leading universities who will discuss how they incorporate PolicyMap into their curriculum. Hear from Dr. Anne Hewitt of the School of Health and Medical Sciences at Seton Hall University discuss how her students use PolicyMap to analyze vulnerable populations in her course entitled Managing Community and Population Health Systems. And Dr. Victor Perez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware, will talk about how he incorporates PolicyMap into his courses to help students understand topics such as the geography of environmental injustice.

Please join us to learn more about how these professors are currently using PolicyMap to teach their students how to easily generate interactive maps and to interact with a wealth of public and proprietary data.


Anne Hewitt, PhD

M.H.A. Program Director and Associate Professor, Department of Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration at Seton Hall University

Since joining Seton Hall University in 2000, Dr. Hewitt has taught many diverse courses in both the MHA and MPA program including strategic planning, health management, health policy, community health, emergency preparedness, and global health and program evaluation. She also serves as faculty for the MHA internship and practicum courses. Dr. Hewitt’s current research interests focus on community health planning, health policy at the state level, the social causes of health disparities and integrating new e-learning technologies into graduate education. In 2005, she founded the Seton Center for Community Health to serve as a resource to the local community. Dr. Hewitt holds degrees from Otterbein University, Immaculata University and Temple University.

Victor Perez, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware

As an assistant professor of sociology, Dr. Perez specializes in topics such as environmental justice, health and illness, and the sociology of risk. A unifying theme throughout his career has been the configuration of health, risk, and society focusing on environmental and health issues through a social constructionist lens. His current research projects include a mixed-methods approach examining perceptions of historic contaminants and sea-level rise in an impoverished area of South Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Perez regularly teaches a course on quantitative sociological research methods, social statistics and data analysis. He has also created several of his own courses including Environment and Health and Introduction to Mapping Social Issues. Dr. Perez holds degrees in sociology from Towson University and the University of Delaware.