The annual Partnerships for Environmental Public Health meeting took place February 19-21, hosted by NIEHS in Durham, North Carolina. The meeting drew environmental health scientists, social scientists, community engagement practitioners, community partners, and NIEHS leadership together, focused on the theme Climate Change and Environmental Justice: Engaging Diverse Teams. With two days of workshops, the PEPH meeting is a great opportunity for shared learning and to highlight formal and informal collaborations between NIEHS grantees.
This year, CEC Director, Katy May, co-led two of these workshops. The first, The Value and Limitations of Applying an Environmental Health Literacy (EHL) Framework was in partnership with Kathleen Gray (UNC-Chapel Hill EHSCC) and Anna Hoover (University of Kentucky SRP). Katy talked about how EHL can frame and inform our Center’s work around reporting back PFAS results to residents in the Cape Fear River basin.The second workshop, Incorporating PFAS Research into Formal (K-12) and Informal Science.
Learning Environments to Engage Diverse Learners, was co-facilitated by Dana Haine (UNC-Chapel Hill EHSCC) and Laurel Schaider (Rhode Island SRP). Katy highlighted how data from Detlef Knappe‘s lab (Project 4) has been used to create locally-relevant, standards-aligned activities for science teachers. That specific example was created in partnership with the NC State Science House and Data Science Academy, and was pilot tested with local science teachers this March.