Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a competing renewal for the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (SWCOEH) at the University of Texas School of Public Health (UTSPH). The overall goal of the SWCOEH is to respond to the critical need for well-trained occupational and environmental health specialists by providing graduate level academic and research training and continuing education. The UTSPH has a unique, multi-campus system, with the main campus located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston and five regional campuses in Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio. The ERC programs, faculty and students are located in Houston and San Antonio primarily in the Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences and the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences with supporting faculty from other disciplines inside and outside of the UTSPH. All campuses are linked electronically, facilitating quality teaching and research, expanded course offerings, interdisciplinary collaboration and access to regional stakeholders as well as expanding our reach to minority student populations. The ERC has been continuously funded since it was established in 1977. The ERC provides master level training (2-3 years) in Industrial Hygiene, doctoral level training (3-4 years) in Occupational Epidemiology, and postdoctoral residencies (2 years) in Occupational Medicine. This application includes a request to fund a new doctoral program in Occupational Injury Prevention, which had received phase-out funding under the previous award. In addition to the academic degree programs, the ERC has active Continuing Education and Outreach Programs that provide a full spectrum of training opportunities, enhanced by annual support of pilot projects research training for new and transitional investigators. For the 2015 academic year, we expect to fund a total of 18 trainees: 5 in Industrial Hygiene, 5 in Occupational Epidemiology, 4 in Occupational Medicine and 4 in Injury Prevention; our Continuing Education Program plans to offer approximately 75 courses to about 2,000 participants and our Pilot Project Research Training Program plans to grant 7 to 8 awards to support occupational safety and health research in Public Health Region 6 (PHR 6).