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Greetings EHS Core Centers!

 

2020 NIEHS Environmental Health Science Core Center Virtual Webinar

We are proud to report that this event was a great success!

The following is a summary of the event with details of each session at the bottom of this page.

 

 

  On July 22- 24, the NIEHS Environmental Health Science (EHS) Core Center Program and the CURES Wayne State University Center co-hosted a virtual conference for members of the 23 centers across the country. Originally set to be held in Detroit, the network didn't want to miss the opportunity for connection amongst scientists, staff, and community members during such pressing times. Each day of the event focused on a unique theme relevant to the current EHS landscape. Participation at the event was impressive, with attendance reaching well over 200 registrants from more than 20 centers.

  Day one of the conference was inspired by the CURES Community Advisory Board (CAB) members who offered a snapshot of the realities faced by Detroiters in relation to the meeting title, COVID-19, Racism, and Environmental Justice: Starting the Conversation within the Core Centers. Breakout sessions allowed 200+ attendees to delve into the roles and challenges the EHS CC's face with the goal of identifying a collective path toward addressing those issues. "Our CEC strives to elevate the voices and concerns of Detroiters and we were grateful to have the opportunity to do that despite the fact that the meeting wasn't held here," said Carrie Leach, the CEC Program Manager.

    The second day of the event was led by the efforts of CURES' own Michael Petriello, Ph.D., who directed a team of other Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) to design an ESI-focused program with the  theme of "Navigating career and research development during challenging times." You can all guess what prompted the idea for this theme!  The Pandemic is probably the largest challenge ESIs are facing right now, and we wanted to provide a space for them to discuss this as well as the challenges of life/work balance, promotion and tenure issues, teaching loads, and the many others that come with ESI territory.  This session was a combination of oral presentations, a panel discussion, and concluded with virtual networking "breakout rooms" to help ESIs advance their careers during these uncertain times.

  The three-day conference concluded with a showcase of research from ten prominent EHS Early Stage Investigators. NIEHS' new Director, Dr. Rick Woychik, opened the session with a welcome and presentation on current NIEHS efforts and directions. The CURES Career Development team and Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) coordinated the process wherein each of the 23 centers was able to nominate a leading ESI, who then went on to be evaluated by a selection committee of Career Development core leaders from different centers. Each ESI gave brief, 10-minute presentations of their work, followed by questions. The conference concluded with attendees splitting off into virtual discussion rooms for networking and general discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the Environmental Health Core Centers share the following goals: advancing scientific research; promoting community engagement; advancing translational research; and training new researchers.

 

 

Session Overviews

July 22, 2020  1:00-3:30 pm ET 

Title: COVID-19, Racism, and Environmental Justice: Starting the conversation within the Core Centers

 

Audience:

  • EHS Core Center members CEC, Center Directors
  • Community partners Community/Stakeholder Advisory Board members and thought leaders
  • NIEHS Staff EHSCC Program leaders, NIEHS leadership

Objectives:

At the end of the meeting, participants will…

  1. Understand connection of key environmental and social issues facing communities in Detroit
  2. Understand underlying beliefs about the environmental and social issues
  3. Consider next steps for the network of EHS Core Centers and NIEHS staff to address the intersection of COVID-19, Racism, and Environmental Justice
  4. Outline topics for a future meeting agenda with additional community perspectives

Background and Rationale:

The Environmental Health Science Core Centers (EHSCC) have a long-standing commitment to community engagement and fostering a two-way channel of communication between the groups they work with and Center members. These Community Engagement Cores (CECs) are often the face and ears of the Center in the local community, as well as a trusted resource of timely environmental health information. The CECs use different approaches for working with their partners, building trust, and addressing questions and concerns.  

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the US, many of the CECs mobilized to get the word out about the virus, protective measures promoted by the CDC, and safe cleaning practices. In this process, the CECs heard the concerns and stresses facing their communities, especially as businesses shut down, jobs were cut, and people were told to remain at home. Over time, it became very clear that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color were bearing a disproportionate burden of the pandemic. In large part, this disparate outcome is because many of these individuals are "essential" workers, often in high-exposure industries/positions, and unable stay home. 

Then, George Floyd was killed by a police officer. The event, captured on video and shared around the world, sparked outrage on many levels. Protestors pointed out that Mr. Floyd's death was just one more in a long list of Black people dying at the hands of White officers, and evidence of an unjust system; not just in policing, but in housing, education, and environmental exposures. Conversations at the local and national level challenge us as individuals and as members of organizations to question how we can contribute to meaningful change. 

The purpose of this virtual meeting is for us, as members of the EHS Core Centers program, to begin considering our roles in making true, lasting change. From the CEC teams, to Center members, to the Center Directors, to the NIEHS EHS Core Center program staff we each have an important part to play to address this intersection of COVID-19, racism, and environmental justice. The meeting on July 22, will set the stage for, and inform, a longer and more in-depth virtual meeting this Fall that will include additional community partner perspectives from other Center locations, as well as more Center member involvement. The July 22 meeting can help to identify topics and approaches for sustained interactions throughout the year.

Agenda:

1:00 PM Welcome & Introductions

1:15 PM Community Voices: Detroit

During the CURES June Community Advisory Board meeting, differing from our typical meeting format, we began our first virtual meeting by asking our CAB members how they, either personally or as an organization, had been impacted by both the COVID-19 pandemic and social response to George Floyd's death. The responses were concerning, moving, and inspiring. Member organizations found themselves facing new challenges in ways that made them grow, for example they said they were conducting more meetings virtually, supporting their clients suffering from higher levels of financial and emotional stress, ensuring safety measures in smaller grocery stores, etc. We moved from discussion about the pandemic, to talking about racism and the current climate and social unrest in Detroit; there was acknowledgement of both ignorance and pain, and discussion about how to foster racial equity allies through awareness, education, and increasing dialogue on the topic. The group highlighted key issues that intersected the topics that Detroiters were facing including misunderstandings about how to prevent infection and spread (for example, Black skin protects against virus), incompatible mediums used for circulating reliable information, and a lack of accessible information in general to protect individuals and their families. Some reported the meeting was healing, but overall, the group called for more dialogue around these issues, and specifically that a task force be formed to develop an action plan to combat these issues. In response, we gathered with our CAB members in early July to revisit the discussion. We offer this snapshot as a backdrop for this dialogue with the goal of identifying a more just path forward for our own center work but also so that it aligns with the broader environmental health network. 

Our Community Advisory Board members who will be participating in the discussion:

2:00 PM Breakout Introductions 

Questions for the Breakout Sessions:

  • Question 1: Does anyone wish to share a brief reflection on the issues/ideas discussed during the panel discussion?
  • Question 2: What are ROLES, OPPORTUNITIES, and CHALLENGES for the EHS Core Centers to address the intersection of COVID-19, racism, and environmental justice? 
    • In other words, WHAT CAN WE DO (personally & collectively within our INDIVIDUAL Centers, our NETWORK of Centers, & our PROGRAM) TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION?
    • Consider this question from the following perspectives:
      • Community Engagement Core members (Including SAB members?)
      • Center members/investigators
      • Center Director/Deputy
      • NIEHS staff involved in EHSCC program
  • Question 3: What are the additional questions that community partners would like the Centers to examine?

2:10 PM Breakouts: Start discuss common questions

2:50 PM Breakouts: Regroup & Share

3:20 PM Wrapping it up: Next Steps

3:30 PM Adjourn

Reading Resources:

July 23, 2020  1:00-4:00 pm ET

Early Stage Investigator (ESI) session, "Navigating career and research development during challenging times" 

 
 

For this session targeted to the ESIs, you can all guess what has prompted the idea for this theme!  The Pandemic is probably the largest challenge ESIs are facing right now, but there are so many other challenges that we could also focus on including growing our families, life/work balance issues, other natural disasters, PandT issues, Teaching loads, and probably many others that you have all probably personally gone through or know of friends and colleagues that have gone through.  This session will combine oral presentations, a panel discussion, and virtual networking in an attempt to help ESIs advance their careers during these uncertain times.

1:00- 1:10 PM EST

Introductory Remarks

Mike Petriello, PhD      (Wayne State University)

1:10-1:20  PM EST

"Recover, Refocus, Reconsider: Moving Your Research Forward After a Crisis"

 

Mark VanLandingham, PhD (Tulane University)

1:25 1:40 PM EST

 "Emergency Response versus Resilience Planning: Bridge it"

John Kucharski, Senior Economist, US Army Corps

Sarah Whateley, PhD, Water Resource Scientist, The Nature Conservancy

1:40 - 2:00 PM EST

Harnessing the Nation's Research Capacity to Address Public Health Emergencies & Disasters:

NIH Public Health Emergency & Disaster Research Response Program (DR2)

Richard Kwok, PhD   (NIEHS)

2:00 - 2:15 PM EST

Q/A related to 3 presentations

 

2:15 - 3:30 PM EST

ESI Panel Discussion - "Being a successful ESI while managing challenges".

Panelists: Lauren Petrick PhD (Mount Sinai), Thad Schug PhD (NIEHS), Jessie Buckley PhD (Johns Hopkins), and Michele La Merrill PhD (UC Davis)

3:30 - 4:00 PM EST

ESI Research Elevator Pitches and Collaboration Building

8 randomly created breakout rooms

July 24, 2020  11:00 am 4:30 pm ET

Early Stage Investigator (ESI) presentations

 

As we have done over the past four years, we are featuring several of our talented Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) from around the EHSCC program. All Center members are welcome to attend this virtual meeting, to hear ten selected ESIs give 10-minute presentations followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. At the end of the day, there will be a "Virtual Lounge" session to allow participants to virtually mingle with one another to follow up on ideas or perhaps spark new projects. More information about the ESIs and their topics will be shared later this week.

 

11:00 am  EST

 

Melissa Runge-Morris, MD

Director of CURES

Wayne State

Meeting Introduction and Welcome to Detroit

11:10 am

 

Rick Woychik, PhD

Director of NIEHS

NIEHS

Brief Introduction and Welcome from NIEHS

11:30 am

 

Patrick Hannon, PhD

 

Kentucky

 

Exposure to an Environmentally Relevant Phthalate Mixture Decreases Ovulatory Prostaglandin Levels in Human and Mouse Ovarian Samples

11:45 am

Akhgar Ghassabian, PhD

NYU

Intrauterine exposure to phthalates: a neuroimaging follow-up study in preadolescents

12:00 pm

Nadine Kotlarz, PhD

NC State

Population exposure to novel, drinking water-associated PFAS in the lower Cape Fear River Basin, North Carolina

12:15 pm

Timothy Moran, PhD

UNC

Role of the indoor exposome in food allergy development.

12:30 pm

Gregory Lefevre, PhD

Iowa

Human Exposure to Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Water: Discovery in Drinking Water, Unanticipated Sources, Novel Disinfection Byproducts, and Treatment Technologies

LUNCH

1:00 - 1:30 pm

 

1:30 pm

Anjum Hajat, PhD

UWash

Air pollutants and hormones from the sympathetic nervous system: are cortisol and the catecholamines implicated in air pollution health effects?

1:45 pm

Donghai Liang, PhD

Emory

Use of High-Resolution Metabolomics for the Identification of Metabolic Signals and Molecular Pathways Associated with Air Pollution Exposures

2:00 pm

Patricia Koman, PhD

UMich

Geospatial Analysis of Modeled Exposure to Wildland Fire Smoke for Human Health Studies

2:15 pm

Tiffany Sanchez, PhD

Columbia

Investigating the effects of low-level environmental exposure to metal mixtures among multi-ethnic, rural/urban US populations impact on spirometry-defined lung disease.

2:30 pm

Christine Austin, PhD

Mt. Sinai

Tooth-matrix biomarkers to reconstruct the early-life exposome

3:00 pm

Melissa Runge-Morris, MD

Closing Comments; Webinar wrap up

3:00 4:00pm

Optional 'Virtual Lounge' post-webinar for more discussion. We will divide into several breakout rooms with our ESIs and webinar attendees for some social networking. Click the link for the room you would like to join. You may enter and exit more than one breakout room.

VIRTUAL LOUNGE THEMES: 

1. Omics and Bioinformatics:

 

2. Women's and Children's Health/DoHaD:

 

3. Air Pollution:

 

4. Metals and Persistent Organic Pollutants session:


 

5. Electronic Health Records and Environmental Health:

https://niehs.zoomgov.com/j/1600280711?pwd=VGg0anlNMkowVlBLa0drbklGTERHUT09

 

 

 

 

 

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Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors

Integrative Biosciences Center
Wayne State University
6135 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, Michigan 48202
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cures_info@wayne.edu

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