UTHSC professor wins grant to explore poverty-health link in primary care delivery Shelley White-Means, PhD, a professor of health economics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, is the principal investigator of a $298,368 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to examine whether health outcomes for low-income individuals will improve if primary care delivery focuses not only on physical and mental health, but also on the effects of poverty. Dr. White-Means will lead a team for the 18-month project to test how an established model of care, Transition to Success (TTS), which focuses on mental health, physical health, and poverty and its consequences, impacts health care delivery and outcomes for patients of Cherokee Health Systems, a non-profit provider of primary care services to the poor and uninsured in Tennessee, with centers in Memphis.