Transdisciplinary Training at the Intersection of Environmental Health and Social Science

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) "Transdisciplinary Training at the Intersection of Environmental Health and Social Science" prepares 6 doctoral students and 3 postdoctoral fellows to be future leaders in social science-environmental health science collaborations. This training program is unique in that is co-directed by an academic institution, Northeastern University's Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute and a non-academic institution, the Silent Spring Institute, a science-based/community-based participatory research environmental non-profit organization. It builds upon a decade of collaborative research and training activities between the two partners. The training component trains doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in a new research trajectory that combines the study of environmental health, exposure science and social science. Trainees learn about community-based participatory research, environmental justice, informal science education, and public participation in science. This will include coursework in regular NU seminars, as well as a special Environmental Health course taught at Silent Spring Institute, designed for our trainees. The capacity-building component offers hands-on training at Silent Spring Institute to learn first-hand how a community-based organization deals with research and advocacy on emerging contaminants and technologies, and to be part of ongoing research projects. These projects involve processes and ethics of reporting back biomonitoring and personal exposure results to participants, data sharing and privacy protection, impact of green renovations on asthma and indoor environmental quality in public housing, modeling of emerging contaminants in Cape Cod drinking water, development of exposure biomarkers for breast cancer studies, and field testing of do-it-yourself air samplers for semi-volatile organic compounds. Trainees will also learn how to work with the news media. The community component places trainees in externships at community-based organizations and environmental health research centers for varying periods of time. The laboratory component brings trainees to various laboratories and organizational sites to learn about a broad range of environmental health research and advocacy.