Engagement of Students via Environmental Section Activities at the 2019 APHA Annual Meeting

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PROJECT SUMMARY The 147th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association (APHA) will be held from November 2 - 6, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The theme for this year's conference, with an anticipated attendance of over 12,000 in total, is "Creating the Healthiest Nation: For Science. For Action. For Health". APHA is a large organization, with a total membership of over 25,000. Therefore, while there are overarching sessions to appeal to the broader membership, each of its 27 sections plan the majority of the conference sessions and special events. The section-organized sessions and events focus on the interest areas of the section-specific membership. One of these 27 sections is the Environment Section, which focuses on environmental health issues. The Environment Section's goal for the 2019 APHA Annual Meeting is to foster interest in environmental health, increase student involvement, and to provide educational offerings on a wide range of environmental health topics, especially related to environmental justice. Ultimately, the Section strives to offer a wide variety of sessions, posters, plenary sessions, and special events to a diverse audience, representing academics, health professionals, community members, and students, especially those from underrepresented groups. To this end, our specific aims for this R13 proposal are: 1) To begin to build the next generation of environmental health leaders by providing a mechanism for underrepresented students to attend the meeting and; 2) To encourage mentorship between students and public health professionals, particularly around environmental health advocacy; 3) To connect students receiving funding through this mechanism to a forum (i.e. a community of practice) for dissemination of results about research and advocacy in environmental health. In its 108th year organizing sessions at the annual meeting, the Environment Section is focusing this year's agenda on environmental advocacy, with a particular focus on advocacy efforts around environmental justice and climate change. To that end, we will use our extensive national network of academic, governmental, and community-based organizations and other consortia, to help promote this funding opportunity in order to recruit students from underrepresented populations. We propose to engage and involve more students enabling them to connect with potential mentors, and to researchers, and to learn about community-based environmental advocacy initiatives and leaders.