Then and now: lessons learned from community- academic partnerships in environmental health research

Maureen Lichtveld; Bernard Goldstein; Lynn Grattan; Christopher Mundorf

doi:10.1186/s12940-016-0201-5

Then and now: lessons learned from community- academic partnerships in environmental health research

Environ Health. 2016 Nov 29;15(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s12940-016-0201-5.

Authors

Maureen Lichtveld¹, Bernard Goldstein², Lynn Grattan³, Christopher Mundorf⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
² Department of Environment and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
³ University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Hiram College, Hiram, OH, USA. camundorf@gmail.com.

Abstract

On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences we reflect on how environmental research incorporating community members as active partners has evolved, benefited communities and advanced environmental health research. We highlight the commitment to community partnerships in the aftermath of the 2010 Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill, and how that commitment helped improve science. We provide examples of community-academic partnerships across the engagement spectrum. Finally, we offer suggestions to improve the community engagement in order to cultivate more long partnerships and better scientific research.

Keywords: Citizen science; Community-academic partnerships; Community-based environmental health research; NIEHS.

Publication types

Letter
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Community-Based Participatory Research*
Disasters
Environmental Health*
Humans
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (U.S.)
United States

Grants and funding

U19 ES020677/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States